The use and ethical assessment of medical photos taken by physicians

Abstract

With the increased use of technology, the use of medical photography has also increased, especially for secondary purposes. Secondary use only results in a benefit for clinicians and is considered a one-way process. This, in turn, raises several potential ethical issues, despite the numerous benefits of medical photography. The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 82 physicians who took medical photos, in Ankara, Turkey. The mean age of the participants was 44.7 years. Of the participants, 95.1% reported using their personal mobile phones for photographing and 84.1% reported taking medical photos for "use in clinical trainings (clinical seminars, student and patient trainings, etc.)". Among physicians who took photos for research purposes, 29.3% reported obtaining only verbal consent. In addition, 53.7% of physicians reported storing medical photos on their personal computers. It seems that there is no consensus among physicians regarding taking, storing, and using medical photos, and these results cause ethical problems.