Staffan Larsson
Department of Medical Imageing
Huddinge University Hospital
”Patients are people – people with problems. They are often in pain and usually apprehensive. To them, the medical photographer is someone who, once more, submits them to an institutional routine. He takes their pictures, with part or all of their clothing removed, to show what is usually an embarrassing condition or deformity. Again, indispensable as photography is in the teaching and advancing of medicine, it does not present to the patient the same direct benefit as a radiograph or a blood test.” H. Lou Gibson, Medical Photography
The quotation gives an idea of how special and sensitive the situations are in many cases for the medical photographer. At the moment when the image is captured the photographer has to act in a very careful manner, so as not to violate the personal integrity of the patient. Patients have different cultural and religious backgrounds, which in some cases generate complicated situations that must be dealt with. It is therefore important that the patient is informed and motivated at an early stage to take part in the medical documentation.
The image is an important and increasingly used tool in modern health care. The X-ray and ultrasound techniques used are |
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routinely recorded in a digital manner. But there is a growing number of situations when video recordings form part of investigations and surgery, especially when it comes to endoscopic recordings.
will grow internally and externally, between various medical units, patients staying in their homes, children with chronic diseases and the educational system, to mention just a few increasingly relevant areas for medical images.Most university and regional hospitals have photographic and media departments to support health care, research and education, and nowadays to assist the hospital’s information and marketing functions also. The basis for the image production is photographic or video documentation of the patient’s disease as a complement to the journal. The description of a disease is simplified by the image, for instance, when a cutaneous disease is under treatment or to document a body part before and after plastic surgery. To be able to compare the development of a disease over time it is important to follow a standardized framework for image production. These frameworks are similar from a global perspective.
The photographer also provides services, using special photographic techniques, such as infrared/ultraviolet light and moiré topography as diagnostic tools. It is natural that documentation of less common diseases or strange varieties is an important complement to education and medical literature. Today the medical image plays an important role with regard to information and instructions to patients.
To achieve a high technical quality, the photographer must have a good insight into what is needed for the physician. In this regard, lighting is very important to improve cutaneous structures, a swollen tissue or the colours of a disease.
Medical IT is under intensive development. The great increase in digital images and the introduction of digital journals in health care make it possible to communicate via computerized networks, so- called Telemedicine. The demand for image communication between different specialists |
