Medical practices and insurers
Medical confidentiality doesn’t stop
at the practice door.
Reports, summaries, and letters addressed to an insurer: the documents that circulate through a medical practice are among the most sensitive personal data there is. VellumPDF processes them in the browser, without ever transmitting them to a third party.
The problem
What happens, without anyone noticing.
When a medical practice or an insurance department needs to convert, merge, or compress a document before sending it, the most common reflex is still to open a PDF suite found online. The file is then uploaded to that provider’s servers for the duration of the processing — servers often hosted outside Switzerland, sometimes outside Europe.
This action, repeated several times a week, constitutes data processing by a third party, to be documented as such — and the nature of the documents involved makes it particularly sensitive. A medical report, an examination summary, or a letter addressed to an insurer qualifies as health data, a category that the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and the GDPR govern with heightened rigor, and that professional secrecy has long protected.
What VellumPDF changes
Processing happens on your machine, not elsewhere.
Every VellumPDF tool runs in your workstation’s browser. When you drop in a report or a summary, it’s your computer’s own processor that handles it: no file ever leaves your device, and no VellumPDF server ever gets access to it. The full technical detail is on our Privacy page.
The proof, in ten seconds
Don’t feel like taking our word for it? Check it yourself — no technical skill required.
- 1Open your browser’s developer tools (press F12).
- 2Click the Networktab.
- 3Process a document with any VellumPDF tool.
- 4Noticethat not a single request goes out with your file — the list stays silent throughout the process.
Everyday tasks
Six tasks you already do — now staying local.
Redact a report before sending it to an insurer
Hide information unrelated to the current claim: the text is destroyed from the file, not just covered with a black bar.
Make a scanned report searchable
A document digitized by scanner becomes text you can search and copy, without going through an online recognition service.
Assemble a file
Letters, results, and forms: combine several documents into a single, ordered PDF before sending or archiving it.
Extract the relevant pages
Send only the pages relevant to the current claim, instead of a complete file for a single piece of information.
Protect a document before sending
Password-protect any document about to leave the practice, before attaching it to an email.
Flatten a form
Once filled in, a flattened form can no longer be altered by mistake or by an indiscreet hand.
What VellumPDF doesn’t do
On a subject this sensitive, the limits deserve to be stated plainly.
- VellumPDF gives no medical advice, clinical or administrative, and in no way replaces the obligations of professional secrecy.
- VellumPDF is neither an official certification nor a compliance label: it’s a document processing tool.
- VellumPDF doesn’t replace your record of processing activities or your risk analysis; it simplifies one line of it, not all of them.
- VellumPDF doesn’t automatically detect health data in a document: it’s up to you to decide what needs to be redacted, extracted, or protected.
For your practice.
VellumPDF Cabinet — an annual license per firm — adds what professional use requires: a written attestation to file in your record of processing activities, a version installable on your internal network with no reliance on the internet, and written support for any questions. The tools remain free; it’s this environment that’s billed.
Does your organization also handle payroll or HR files? See the Human resources and payroll page.