“I would strongly recommend using the app to take good quality photos.”
Dr Andreas Photiou has been a GP for 10 years and works at Wood End Health Centre, NHS Coventry and Rugby CCG.
Before Consultant Connect was introduced to this area in 2016, Dr Photiou did not often take clinical photos. He now regularly uses the Safe Clinical Photography feature – PhotoSAF, on the Consultant Connect App, to send photos to consultants for advice at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust. He told us:
“I would strongly recommend using the app to take good quality photos taken under good lighting – using a paper ruler for scale also helps. Clinicians must include sufficient clinical information such as the skin type of the patient or their previous sun exposure history. There did not appear to be a deterioration in the quality of the photos taken via the app.”
Dr Photiou finds Photo Advice & Guidance on the Consultant Connect App beneficial to improving patient care and provided the below example:
A male patient came to see Dr Photiou with a cutaneous horn-type lesion on his upper chest. The patient had a history of fair skin and sun exposure. Dr Photiou was concerned that the lesion could be an early Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC), so he sent a photo via the app to a dermatology consultant for advice. The consultant agreed that it could be an early SCC and advised a 2ww referral.
How Photo Advice & Guidance helped:
“I was able to share the image with the consultant and I received a response within the hour containing their clinical advice” says Dr Photiou. Putting the patient forward for a 2ww referral was the best result for the patient because it fast tracked the referral and meant the condition was being managed efficiently.
Click here to view and download a PDF version of this case study.
