In a message dated 27/11/98 17:29:26 GMT, you write:
<< Subj: Videos, photographs and patient consent
Date: 27/11/98 17:29:26 GMT
From: [log in to unmask] (Nick Loman)
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Hehe well our letter went in the BMJ today.
I hope someone appreciates it!
Unfortunately the BMJ hacked it to shreds so if you would
like to see what we actually submitted then go to:
http://www.medmicro.mds.qmw.ac.uk/~mpallen/bmjletter/bmjlett.html >>
Interesting images. Surely what you are doing in combining and morphing images
is a technically sophisticated version of what medical artists have always
done. In some cases I'm sure medical drawings in textbooks could be identified
with an individual subject but has consent ever been an issue there? Then
Atlases of Anatomy tend not to have a very wide non-medical audience, unlike
the internet.
I can't see how consent can be relevant once an image loses its identity with
an individual - whether the image is altered, combined or is simply processed
via the artist's visual cortex. Who would initiate a complaint if the image is
unrecognisable as any one individual? How could anyone's privacy be infringed
by an image that carries no name and doesn't look like them?
I have one question of the authors. Authenticity. Medical photographs are
often very imperfect and atypical of the conditions they portray but this can
be a virtue because this reflects real life. If you combine several images to
produce an idealised image of, say, a melanoma you have a tremendous
responsibility to be accurate. Should perhaps all such altered images carry a
label identifying them as such - at least in academic and educational circles
(though perhaps this is even more vital in the news media!) At least a drawing
is recognisable as a drawing and you know the artist may be idealising the
image somewhat or combining features from several objects in one image and you
don't need to be told this. Photographic images have come to acquire a
reputation for truth and accuracy, at least in an academic context, although
faking images goes back to the Victorians and pictures of "ectoplasm"
emanating from spiritualist mediums.
Robert Upshall
DARLINGTON.
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