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Cell phone pix: A new diagnostic tool
Photos taken by patients help speed flow
Initial data on the use of cell phone photos of injuries, taken by the patients themselves in the ED at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC, offers the promise that they might have the potential to speed treatment without sacrificing diagnostic accuracy.
The patients send their pictures to a secure e-mail account, where they can be downloaded by ED physicians. "You look at a patient who comes in with a slice injury, for example, and sometimes you're not sure if they need stitches or not," notes Neil Sikka , MD, an assistant...