Trust, privacy and safety
We are asking older adults to talk to an AI about their health, and asking clinicians to act on what it hears. That only works if we are precise about what we do, what we do not do, and where we are today.
This page is written to be conservative. If something here is vaguer than you need, ask us and we will answer specifically.
Where we are today
almyhealth is in development. We are selecting pilot partners and have not yet deployed with patients.
Our HIPAA compliance program is designed and documented, covering governance, risk analysis, technical safeguards, workforce training, vendor agreements and breach response. It has not yet been independently audited, and we do not currently hold SOC 2, HITRUST or any third-party security certification. SOC 2 Type II is planned, targeted within twelve months of launch. An independent penetration test and HIPAA gap analysis are planned before any enterprise deployment.
We will update this section as each of those changes, and we will not describe a control as achieved before it is.
| Control | Status | Target |
|---|---|---|
| HIPAA compliance program | Designed | Independently audited |
| SOC 2 Type II | Planned | Within twelve months of launch |
| Independent penetration test | Planned | Before any enterprise deployment |
| HIPAA gap analysis | Planned | Before any enterprise deployment |
How we handle your health information
What we collect
Alma creates and records protected health information during every interaction: medications confirmed, symptoms reported such as weight, swelling and breathing, dietary information, appointment activity, the call logs themselves, and audio from voice interactions.
Our legal position
almyhealth operates as a Business Associate under HIPAA. We receive patient data from covered healthcare providers, process it, and return clinical information to those providers. We execute a Business Associate Agreement with every healthcare organization before any patient data is exchanged, and with every vendor of ours that touches patient data, including cloud infrastructure, telephony and AI model providers.
How it is protected
Encryption at rest and in transit. Role-based access control, so a physician, a nurse and an administrator see what their role requires and no more. Unique credentials for every user, with no shared logins. Multi-factor authentication on provider and administrative systems. Complete audit logging of who accessed which record and when. Automatic session timeouts. Controlled and logged data exports. Automated alerting on unusual access patterns.
Your voice recordings
Voice is biometric data and we treat it as the most sensitive category we hold.
- We ask for consent to capture and analyze your voice separately from general medical consent, in plain language, by phone, with your verbal acknowledgment recorded. It is not buried in a terms of service link.
- No vendor in our processing chain may retain your voice data or use it to train their own models. That obligation is contractual, not a preference.
- Deletion is built into the platform. When you stop using almyhealth, or the recovery period your enrollment covered comes to an end, your voiceprint is purged rather than retained indefinitely.
What we do not do
We do not sell patient data. We do not use identified patient conversations to train third-party models. We do not disclose mental health information to family members without the patient's explicit authorization.
What Alma is, and what she is not
almyhealth positions Alma as a wellness and adherence companion that supports a treatment plan written by a licensed clinician.
Alma does not:
- Diagnose any medical or mental health condition
- Prescribe, adjust or discontinue any medication
- Provide therapy, counseling or psychological assessment
- Interpret test results or make clinical judgments
- Replace a physician, nurse, caregiver or family member
- Function as an emergency service
In an emergency, call 911.
almyhealth is not currently regulated by the FDA as a medical device, and we make no clinical claims that we have not validated. If we later pursue capabilities that require regulatory clearance, we will obtain it before we market them.
Human oversight
Alma is built on a safe-by-default framework designed to recognize when AI has reached its limit.
When Alma detects a symptom outside the expected range, a lapse in cognition, or a concerning emotional shift, she does not attempt to resolve it. She escalates. The care team receives an alert through the Safety Network Alert System, with the content that triggered it documented so a clinician can evaluate it directly.
The platform is designed as a workforce support layer, not a replacement for clinical staff. By handling routine data collection, Alma is intended to let nurses practice at the top of their license and spend their time where judgment is required.
Guarding against dependency
Alma is warm by design, and she is calling people who are often isolated. We take seriously the risk that a patient comes to rely on her as their primary human connection.
Alma is designed to encourage engagement with family, caregivers and community, framing human relationships as more important than her own. If a patient indicates that Alma is their only friend or main source of connection, that is treated as a clinical concern and surfaced to their care coordinator, not as a product success metric.
Your rights
Patients have the right to access their health information, to request corrections, to know who it has been disclosed to, and to request restrictions on its use. Requests are handled within the timelines HIPAA requires. Our privacy officer is the accountable owner of this process.