Mir Zafar Ali, Nasir Zaman Khan, Faiz Mohammad Khan.
Advantages of Digital Photography record keeping in Plastic Surgery.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;12(10):613-7.

Objective: To introduce a duplicate digital photo-image record keeping system by replacing old conventional photo-slides to avoid maintenance problems of conventional photo-slides library and establish a privacy policy to assure secure retrieval. Design: Comparative study ( A pilot project). Place and Duration of Study: Department of plastic surgery, Jinnah postgraduate Medical centre, Karachi. Subjects and Methods: This paper is based on a pilot project, conducted first time in Pakistan, to convert photo-slides (chrome film- transparency) captured by a conventional camera into digital data format on a compact disc (CD) by a process called Digitization. A total of 63 photo-slides, captured on chrome-film, were selected from our photographic record library. Results: The digitized photo-image proved to be advantageous over conventional photo-slide management in record keeping, being easily manageable via computer for easy retrieval. All environmental and handling losses of the conventional photo-slides can be avoided with this method of duplication. Conclusion: Digital photographs have proved to be useful tools for visual perceptive evaluation of the patient pre-operative and postoperative photo-images as a ready reference for comparison.

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