Under any civil law, we are responsible for their confidentiality. This is particularly in Plastic Surgery where they form part of the patient's medical record, making them subject to this duty of confidence. Photographs of patients are generally obtained within the doctor–patient relationship. Besides caring for our patients, we must respect their dignity and privacy and protect their confidential information. Just as patients must be able to trust their doctors with their lives and well-being, they should also be able to feel more than reassured that their health records are safe with the clinician. Health information is considered amongst the most sensitive and personal information that individuals possess.
Privacy of the patient and his/her health condition is nonnegotiable in the 21 st century.
Photographs are important for both medical record keeping and medical education, but have you ever stopped and pondered what does the patient get out of it? Is it not a one-way process in which the clinicians reap the benefit and the patient's interest are hardly of concern? Are we not treating the patients like an interesting case, an unusual finding, rather than living and feeling human being? Are we aware that an informed consent is required for clinical photography just like any other procedure?
Clinical photographs in journals and textbooks are vital to illustrate a clinical finding, or an operative step or a postoperative result, thereby enriching and livening up the mundane words of text.