The short version
Hieratic helps operating room staff identify surgical instruments — looking up a Weitlaner retractor by name, nickname, or reference number, and seeing which trays hold it.
Everything it knows lives on the device it is installed on. There is no Hieratic account, no Tessomorph server holding your records, and no analytics. We cannot see your data because it is never sent to us, and the app contains no mechanism capable of sending it.
What the app stores, and where
Hieratic keeps your facility's own working data in local storage on the device, using the browser storage engine built into iOS. This includes:
- Instrument sets and count-sheet records imported by your administrator
- Tray names, reference numbers, quantities, sections and storage locations
- Approved terminology, nicknames and result-ordering rules
- Photographs of instruments and trays
- Local staff and administrator accounts
None of this is patient information. Hieratic's data model has no field for a patient name, identifier, procedure, or date of service, and no facility for adding one.
Photographs
Administrators may attach photographs of instruments and trays to a record, so staff can confirm by sight what a description alone leaves ambiguous.
- Photographs are stored only in the app's local database on the device.
- They are never uploaded to Tessomorph Systems or anyone else.
- They are not written to your iOS photo library or camera roll, so they do not sync to iCloud or appear in other apps' photo pickers.
- Every image is re-encoded when captured, which removes all embedded metadata — including GPS location — before it is saved.
- They are excluded from database exports unless an administrator deliberately selects the option to include them.
The camera exists for documenting instruments, trays and their labels. The license agreement you accept inside the app prohibits using it to photograph patients, staff, wristbands, charts, whiteboards, monitors, or the surgical field. Your organization is responsible for the content of the photographs it takes and for its own compliance obligations, including HIPAA.
Face ID
If you enable it, Face ID or Touch ID can unlock a sign-in credential that Hieratic has stored in the iOS Keychain, so you do not have to type a password in a sterile environment.
The biometric check is performed entirely by iOS. Your face or fingerprint data never leaves Apple's secure hardware, is never transmitted, and is never seen by Hieratic or by Tessomorph Systems — the app is only told whether iOS accepted the match.
Network connections
In its shipped configuration, Hieratic makes no network requests at all. It works with the device in airplane mode, which is the normal condition in a sterile core.
Two optional capabilities can be switched on by an administrator. Neither is enabled by default, and neither ever transmits a photograph:
- A local language model. An administrator may point the admin search-configuration tool at a language model they run themselves — the field defaults to
127.0.0.1, a machine on your own network. If enabled, instrument descriptions and terminology rules are sent to that endpoint. You operate it; we have no access to it. - An organization sign-in service. Hieratic supports authenticating against a configuration service operated by your own surgical center. This release ships with no service address configured, so the capability is inactive.
What we never do
Hieratic contains no analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no advertising framework, and no third-party code that loads over the network. The app bundle is fully self-contained.
We do not sell, rent, share, or disclose your information, because we never receive it. We do not track you across apps or websites, and Hieratic requests no tracking permission. There is no profile of you anywhere in our systems.
Your data is yours
An administrator can export your facility's tray data at any time, as a plain JSON file you keep. An export with photographs included must be protected as carefully as the device itself.
Deleting the app removes all of its data from the device, permanently and immediately. There is nothing to request from us and nothing for us to delete on your behalf, because we hold nothing.
Children
Hieratic is a professional tool for surgical and sterile processing staff. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the effective date above changes with it, and a materially different version will be described in the release notes of the update that introduces it. We will not begin collecting personal information without saying so plainly here first.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about how Hieratic handles data in your facility, can be sent to mattheww4653@gmail.com.