Most Front Desk users have seen the X-Ray tab on the patient file but may not have realised that the included functionality can be used to store, catalogue, annotate and view general patient images or photos.
If you are not using this functionality primarily for X-Rays, you can re-name this patient tab to Images, Photo or Scan using the drop-down menu in System Information > Options. For this article, we will set it to ‘Photo’.
To add an image that is already on your computer, open the Photos tab of a patient file and select the Add Photo button.
Browse for the image you wish to add and then click Open. To select multiple files, hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard while making your selection.
To import images in colour, select the Include Colour when Importing (Default Greyscale Only) option.
Front Desk will automatically optimise any files added to the Photos tab so that they do not take up excessive space in your database.
Click on an image and select the View button (or double-click) to open the image in full screen. You can also hold down the control key on your keyboard to select two images to view them side by side.
Alongside each photo is an advanced set of tools that allow you to markup and view your image. A description of these tools is below:
The right-hand side of the screen includes additional tools:
The Print button will print the selected image.
The Export button allows you to save the image in another location.
The Invert button reverses the image.
The Rotate button turns the image 90° clockwise.
The Swap button switches the position of the image from left to right. This option is only when two images are displayed.
The
button displays just one image on the screen.
The
button displays two images on the screen.
Images added to the Photos tab can also be accessed when recording clinical notes by clicking the button as indicated below:
As an alternative, images can be always be added to the patient file using the Attachment functionality, which allows you to store images and any other file types. Stored attachments can then be viewed with the native application on your computer that works with these file types.
It is important to optimise files before adding them to the Attachments tab so that they don’t use excessive space in your database. Front Desk allows you to set a general warning to appear when attempting to add an Attachment over a certain size in System Information > Attachments.
When adding a JPG, BMP or TIFF file that is larger than the amount set in the warning, Front Desk will automatically offer to optimise the image.
When choosing to optimise an image, the right-hand side of the window includes tools to reduce the quality by percentage or by modifying the size of the image. You’ll see the original image on the left so that you can preview the quality of the image after your optimisations are applied.
Click OK to save the image to the attachments tab.