A Smartphone use in Medical Photography

Abstract

The modern era is becoming more and more digital. The use of smartphones for taking photos is widespread in the medical field. Most often, these photos are used for patient care, but also these photographs are used for educational and teaching purposes. Through a survey carried out among our university hospital doctors (HU), we wanted to establish an inventory of current practices in terms of taking but also using and storing medical photos and/or videos. Methods Prospective cross-sectional study, carried out among 1400 HU teaching doctors affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, via a Google Forms questionnaire pre-established by the digital pedagogy committee, and sent by email through institutional mailing lists. Results We received 223 (15.9%) survey participants, divided into 52 specialties. Only 2.7% did not use their “smartphones” to take medical photos. Smartphones were used for taking photos and/or videos of patients (76.7%), medical records (70.9%), and slides, samples or radiological images (72.2%). Twenty-two percent of respondents were reluctant to use a smartphone for taking medical photos, due to the risk of loss or theft of the phone (69.2%) and a question of confidentiality and ethics (59. 3%). The taking of medical photos and/or videos was for patient care (81.6%), for educational purposes or for research (90.6%), for personal reference (39.5%), for entertainment or for social networks (0.9%). The smartphone would be the most accessible and the easiest to use (non-accessibility of a traditional camera (58.7%)). The classic camera, on the other hand, is considered the most secure. Nearly half of doctors (48.4%) stored their medical photos in a dedicated database, 21.5% with their personal photos and 42.2% on their personal computer. An inter-colleague exchange of medical photos via instant messaging on social networks in 47.3% of cases. The patient’s oral consent is always requested in 58.3% (46% however consider this to be insufficient). Written consent is obtained in 4.5%. However, 7.6% do not request any. The need to establish legal procedures for taking these photos, by establishing standardized consent forms, was mentioned by most of the responses. Conclusions The use of smartphones for taking medical photos and/or videos is widespread, easy and useful. However, consent must be detailed. Standardized procedures must be put in place to protect patients but also doctors.