Imaging and image management: A survey on current outlook and awareness in pathology practice

Abstract

Background:Flexibility of digital photography enables it to be an integral part of pathology practice. An assessment of guidelines of imaging is essential for proper usage of photographs.Objectives:The purpose of the study was to assess awareness of oral pathologists about various aspects of medical photography.Methods:Questionnaire based on the availability of facilities, usage, technical details and ethical issues of medical photography was sent to postgraduate students and teaching faculties of Oral Pathology in various localities in India.Results:Photographs were taken mostly for the purposes of publication, medical documentation and education. Significant number of postgraduate students and faculties of Oral Pathology didn’t receive any training or hadn’t gone through any publications/books (P = 0.000) about medical photography. Consent for patient photography was taken by significant number of respondents (P = 0.000) but in a verbal form. Majority of people used image editing software, but 19.0% of faculties and 21.1% of postgraduate students were unaware of deleterious effect of image editing. Firm and sensible instructions concerning image storage, sharing and accessibility were not yet created.Conclusion:This survey drew attention towards lack of proper understanding about the technical details, medical protocols and ethical issues related to medical photography. These findings recommend implementation of basic training for medical photography and policy for image management for students and faculties in every health care institution.

Big Data and Digitalization in Dentistry: A Systematic Review of the Ethical Issues

“…Ethical issues were raised in two directions. First, concerns of patient privacy and anonymity and of data security were highlighted in relation to the storage and sharing of digital images [52,57,58]. These issues are of a comparable nature to those enumerated for EHR, mHealth, and teledentistry, which principally have to do with possible access to sensitive patient information by unwarranted parties and interception of digital communications.…”

“…The technology discussed by eight of the collected papers was digital photography and digital radiography [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Among them, four articles [51,53,55,56] highlighted that image modification, made easier by digitalization of both dental photography and radiography, could result in misconduct in science and fraudulent use of modified pictures.…”

“…Three papers correlated the ethical issues of digital imagery to digital sharing and storage of images [52,57,58]. For instance, issues of security of data and patient privacy and confidentiality might arise owing to inattentive storage of images (if digital photographs are stored for too long on an SD-card or if images are shared via electronic means such as using emails and smartphones or networking apps as Whatsapp) [52]. In addition, Stieber et al [57] indicate how even patient autonomy and consent might be breached if the images are used in an unauthorized manner, such as posting them on a public forum.…”

“…Regarding image modification, the application of state-of-the-art anti-forgery techniques was suggested [51], as well as the development of appropriate guidelines to set an acceptable standard for image modification in dentistry [53]. As for image sharing issues, Stieber et al [57] suggested the implementation of a privacy compliant framework, where informed consent is enhanced in order to give patients more control over how their images are used, while Indu et al [52] proposed the use of only custom apps built exclusively for medical data sharing.…”

Influence of Image Manipulation Restricted to Global Alterations on Diagnosis by an Oral Cytologist

“…Cromey DW proposed 12 guidelines for scientific digital image manipulation with valid reasoning for each of the guidelines and recommended inclusion of these guidelines as part of undergraduate student teaching curriculum in order to sensitize the students about the effects of the so called "digital image beautification" [12]. Indu M, et al have conducted a survey-based study to assess awareness of Indian oral pathologists about various aspects of medical photography and found out that most students and faculty were using image enhancing softwares but were unaware of their ill effects [13].…”