Photos and consent

You can store photos against a patient's record, which is invaluable for tracking results over time and for clinical documentation.

Clinical and marketing

Each photo is flagged as either clinical or marketing, and the difference matters:

• Clinical photos are part of the patient's record. They support continuity of care, before-and-after comparison and your clinical defence.
• Marketing photos are ones you may want to use publicly, for example on social media or your website.

Consent

Consent for clinical photography is not the same as consent to use a photo in your marketing. The flag keeps the two clearly separated, so a photo a patient was happy to have taken for their record is never accidentally treated as approved for public use. Only ever use a photo for marketing where the patient has explicitly agreed to that specific use.

Good practice

• Flag every photo correctly at the point of upload.
• Keep clinical and marketing consent as separate conversations and records.
• Treat marketing approval as opt-in and specific, never assumed.