Citation

Schulte AG, Ricci LR, Melville JD, Brown J. Pediatr. Emerg. Care 2022; 38(9): 464-468.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PEC.0000000000002559

PMID

36040467

Abstract

Photo documentation of injuries on children is universally recommended in cases of suspected child physical abuse. As technology improves, the ability to document physical examination findings through smartphone photography is increasingly accessible and practical. The quality of images captured on smartphones now rivals traditional photography and the integration of photo capture within the electronic medical record has led to a variety of fields adopting smartphone photo documentation for diagnosis, consult, and follow-up. However, in cases of child physical abuse, practitioners have been hesitant to adopt smartphones as a primary means of photo documentation because of concerns around image quality, privacy, and security. In this article, we discuss the technology of available smartphone cameras and current evidence regarding their use for photo documentation, use existing guidelines to propose a workflow to improve the yield of smartphone photo documentation in child physical abuse, and discuss common medicolegal concerns.

Language: en