Graduate School of Design, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, Taiwan.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chiayi Christian Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Jul 31;7(7):e14531. doi: 10.2196/14531.
Digital photography is crucial for electronic medical records (EMRs), particularly for documenting dermatological diseases and traumatic wounds. In modern emergency departments (EDs), digital cameras are commonly used for photography, but the process is time-consuming. The problems of addressing patient privacy issues and that of interruptions and heavy workloads can cause archival errors when uploading photos. However, smartphones are widely available and cheap, so with a suitable app many errors could be mitigated.
The aim of this study is to design and test a smartphone app to improve the efficiency of clinical photography and improve patient privacy in the ED. The app is connected to the hospital information system to verify patient identification and enable archiving, and the app can automatically delete images after upload to the patient's EMR.
This study enrolled 48 experienced ED nurses trained in clinical photography. Each nurse was first assigned a digital camera for photography and then a smartphone with the app preinstalled after it was launched. The time taken to upload images to a patient's EMR was then recorded and the efficiency of the digital camera and app groups were compared.
The average time taken to upload images to a patient's EMR for the camera and app groups were 96.3 s (SD 19.3; P<.001) and 26.3 s (SD 4.7; P<.001), respectively.
The app effectively reduced processing time and improved clinical photography efficiency in the ED. Some issues of patient privacy in the camera group were revealed and resolved in the app group.
数字摄影对于电子病历（EMR）至关重要，特别是对于记录皮肤病和创伤性伤口。在现代急诊科（ED）中，数码相机通常用于摄影，但过程很耗时。在上传照片时，解决患者隐私问题以及中断和工作量大的问题可能会导致存档错误。但是，智能手机广泛可用且价格便宜，因此使用合适的应用程序可以减轻许多错误。
本研究旨在设计和测试一款智能手机应用程序，以提高 ED 临床摄影的效率并保护患者隐私。该应用程序连接到医院信息系统以验证患者身份并实现归档，并且应用程序可以在上传图像到患者的 EMR 后自动删除图像。
本研究纳入了 48 名接受过临床摄影培训的经验丰富的 ED 护士。每位护士首先被分配一台数码相机进行摄影，然后在推出后使用预安装该应用程序的智能手机。然后记录将图像上传到患者 EMR 的时间，并比较数码相机和应用程序组的效率。
数码相机和应用程序组将图像上传到患者 EMR 的平均时间分别为 96.3 秒（SD 19.3；P<.001）和 26.3 秒（SD 4.7；P<.001）。
该应用程序有效地减少了处理时间并提高了 ED 临床摄影的效率。在应用程序组中发现并解决了数码相机组中存在的一些患者隐私问题。
