ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Digital photography

J S Windsor¹, G W Rodway², P M Middleton³, S McCarthy³

¹ Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE), St James’s School, London, UK
² The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
³ Department of Emergency Medicine, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
J S Windsor
Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE), Flat 2 St James’s School, George’s Road, London N7 8HD, UK; jswindsor{at}doctors.org.uk

Objective: The emergence of a new generation of "point-and-shoot" digital cameras offers doctors a compact, portable and user-friendly solution to the recording of highly detailed digital photographs and video images. This work highlights the use of such technology, and provides information for those who wish to record, store and display their own medical images.

Methods: Over a 3-month period, a digital camera was carried by a doctor in a busy, adult emergency department and used to record a range of clinical images that were subsequently transferred to a computer database.

Results: In total, 493 digital images were recorded, of which 428 were photographs and 65 were video clips. These were successfully used for teaching purposes, publications and patient records.

Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of informed consent, the selection of a suitable package of digital technology and the role of basic photographic technique in developing a successful digital database in a busy clinical environment.

Keywords: digital photography; video; informed consent

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