Written in 2018 – as part of ROJoson Memoir @70
Since 1981, I have been advocating the proper ways of preparing overhead transparencies then slide preparations during presentation particularly in medical conferences. At the same time, I have been advocating proper ways of taking pictures that will be used in medical presentation.
I have been teaching to surgical residents in various hospitals, medical students in various medical schools and hospital staff as well.
I have consolidated all my experiences and past writings in this website, Digital Medical Presentation – https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/
Medical photography and slide preparation for medical presentation are important skills that are of importance to academic physicians and surgeons. I have published structured online primers on these which can be seen in https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/
Note: I have yet to see similar writings or primers in the Philippines done by other people.
I have been advocating proper ways of medical photography and slide preparation since 1981. This is a legacy that I leave and will leave for physicians and surgeons.
I was invited to speak on “The Art of Making a Transparency as a Visual Aid” in the Philippine College of Surgeons Convention circa 1991.
I remember I wrote a chapter, entitled “The Art of Making a Transparency as a Visual Aid,” which was included in a primer produced by the Committee on Audio-visual Communication of the Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital under the chairmanship of Dr. Antonio Limson (circa 1992).
When powerpoint became popular, I advocated how to make proper slide for medical presentation (Note: during my general surgical residency, I had acquired experience in making slide for medical presentation using the old ways of using kodaliths and ektachromes.)
MEDICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
How I got involved in medical photography
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/how-i-got-involved-in-medical-photography
My experience with medical photography dated back to 1976 when I was a first-year general surgery resident in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). My mentor, Dr. George Eufemio, influenced me into medical photography. He did not tell me to go into medical photography. However, just witnessing his collection of medical pictures and the utility he derived from such collection, he used them in facilitating his teaching and research, I realized the importance of medical photography. Thus, after I got my first lump-sum salary in October, 1976, I was receiving only about PhP 700 per month, I bought a Pentax camera and started taking pictures of my patients and objects of medical interest. I was practically spending all my salary on medical photography – ektachrome films, kodaliths for word slides, developing expenses, etc Fortunately, my expenses on medical photography would be reimbursed by the prize money I got from winning research contests (using my slide collection).
I indexed all my slide pictures together with patient data, histopath result, and follow-up outcome data. It was really a very tedious task done on about 20,000 slide pictures that I collected during my 5-year residency in PGH. The trade-off was a more astute clinician who can easily make a diagnosis just based on interview and physical examination without relying too much on laboratory diagnostic procedures. The other effect was an astute surgeon who can easily make a diagnosis just based on the gross appearance of the pathology without relying too much on microscopic examination by the pathologists. In other words, medical photography greatly reinforced my training and learning as a physician and as a surgeon mainly in terms of a diagnostic skill based on pattern recognition (one that is derived from studying and focusing on the pattern of a disease when taking a picture, then correlating the pattern with the final diagnosis, and then recognizing the pattern in a future or another patient).
What is medical photography?
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/medical-photography
Medical photography is taking pictures of something medical.
That something is either persons (patients) and objects of medical interest.
Taking pictures of patients may consist of taking pictures of the whole person or body or just a portion of the person’s body such as the head, neck, chest, abdomen, or extremity or a deeper part of the person’s body usually done during and after an operation or autopsy such as thyroid, breast, stomach, colon, kidney, etc.
As to time of picture taking of patients, this may be done at consultation, during the pretreatment (preoperative), intra-treatment (intra-operative) and post-treatment (post-operative) phases.
Taking pictures of objects of medical interest may consist of taking pictures of medical equipment (both diagnostic and therapeutic) and diagnostic results, pictures, and plates (such as x-rays, ct-scans, nuclear scans, ultrasounds).
Teaching medical photography
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/teaching-medical-photography
Because of my vast experience in medical photography, after graduation from PGH in 1981, when I was already a consultant, I decided to give lectures on the do’s and don’ts of medical photography. I had given lectures on the topic to the staff of the Department of Surgery of PGH, Manila Doctors Hospital, and other hospitals which I cannot recall now. (See below for a recordof a lecture in 1988 in MDH. I am sure I had given the first lecture earlier than 1988.) In 2003, I was invited by the Philippine Dermatology Society to be a panelist on medical photography. I begged off because of conflict of schedule. In July 2012, I am being invited to conduct a workshop on the medical photography in the Asian Medical Students’ Conference.
I have been actively promoting medical photography in the Department of Surgery of Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center (OMMC) as early as 2002. Starting June, 2004, all surgical residents have been required to demonstrate skills in medical photography by presenting their pictures during our regular Tuesday and Thursday conferences.
In the Division of Head and Neck, Breast and Surgical Oncology in the Philippine General Hospital of which I am one of the consultants and where I attend conferences every Wednesday, we also require competency on medical photography for our residents.
Twenty-five years (from 1981 to 2006) [written in 2006] have passed since I started promoting awareness on the importance of medical photography. Its importance has remained despite the changing times and production of electronic photography equipment. The principles of medical photography are still the same (clear and not jampacked and clean) despite the fact that digital cameras, LCD projectors, computers (particularly the powerpoint presentation), and scan have make photography and medical presentation easier and quicker. Practically, the kodalith and ektachrome films, slide projectors, slide viewers and carousels used in 80’s and 90’s have been phased out.
Before I retire and before I loose all my notes on medical photography, starting 2006 [written in 2006], up to present, 2012 [this year], I intend to retrieve all my files and write a final edition on medical photography. This will be one of the legacies that I like to leave behind for the future Filipino physicians, particularly the surgeons.
Medical photography as a training module in a department of surgery (written in 2006)
In July 9, 2012, I was invited as a resource person to conduct a seminar-workshop by the Asian Medical Students Association.
In May 9, 2012, I served as a resource person in Powerful Presentation Skills and Reporting for staff of Manila Doctors Hospital.
In October 2012, I served as a resource person in the Presentation Skills – A Seminar-learnshop for staff of Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital, Batac, Ilocos Norte.
Feedback from a surgical graduate of OMMC Surgery in 2013:
Medical Photography and Slide Presentation – An Advocacy – A Legacy
Medical photography and slide preparation for medical presentation are important skills that are of importance to academic physicians and surgeons. I have published structured online primers on these which can be seen in https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/
Note: I have yet to see similar writings or primers in the Philippines done by other people.
I have been advocating proper ways of medical photography and slide preparation since 1981. This is a legacy that I leave and will leave for physicians and surgeons.
References:
Circa 1982 to 1989, I wrote “Presenting in Medical Conferences.”
https://sites.google.com/site/rojosonwritings/presenting-in-medical-conferences
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/
ROJ@18nov16
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