Medical photography and video recordings
Information about photographs or videos taken as part of your treatment at Bristol Dental School.
Why do I need to be photographed?
As part of your clinical care or diagnosis, you may be asked for permission to take a photograph or video of you or part of your body.
The photographs will be used by your clinical team to provide a visual record of your condition.
The photographs form part of your medical records and can be used for future reference to assess your condition.
The school may also request to take photographs or videos for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
Who will be taking my photograph?
Your photographs or videos will be taken by an authorised member of staff for example, a nurse, one of the supervising dental staff or an undergraduate student under the supervision of one of the staff.
Will I be recognisable in the photographs/video?
It is difficult to make your image completely anonymous; however every effort will be made to protect your rights to confidentiality under the Data Protection Act 2018. If you have any particular concerns please mention it to the photographer.
Who will see the photograph or video?
The photograph or recording will be seen by the care team responsible for your treatment and diagnosis.
In addition, if you sign for the photograph/recording to be used for secondary purposes, your images may be used for teaching or publication. This is explained in the consent form that you will be asked to sign before any photographs can be taken.
Where will the photograph/recording be stored?
The photographs or videos taken as part of your clinical treatment will be stored on the patient administration system, Salud, in your records.
Photographs taken for research or teaching will be stored securely on the University Server. They will be password protected.
Photographs taken as part of an undergraduate examination presentation will be stored securely on the University Server. When the student graduates these records will be destroyed.
Access to your health records
To access your medical records, please contact the access to health records team via the below methods:
Email: bds-informationrequest@bristol.ac.uk
Or write to:
Subject Access Request, Patient Administration Office, Bristol Dental School, 1 Trinity Quay, Avon Street BS2 0PT
Consent
Please note: if you do not wish to have your photograph or recording taken you do not have to give your consent. However, in some cases, refusal may prevent your healthcare team from achieving the best possible outcome for you.
Consent level 1 - Clinical photography for health records
You will be asked to sign a consent form or give verbal consent for your photographs/video recordings to be used for your treatment, diagnosis and medical records only. The photographs/ video recordings will only be seen by the care team responsible for your treatment.
Consent for secondary purposes
You may also be asked to consent to your photographs/video recordings to be used for secondary purposes.
Secondary purposes refers to your photographs/video recordings being used for teaching or publication.
Consent level 2 - Teaching
BDS is a large teaching hospital and it can be useful for your photographs/video recordings to be used to teach dentists or dental nurses in training or to educate clinical staff on certain medical conditions or procedures.
Consent level 3 - Publication
Consent to publication refers to your images/recordings being published.
For example, to illustrate an article in a medical journal or to be used in a patient information leaflet.
Your clinical team will explain how they would like to use the photographs and you can decide if you wish to consent to this.
Please be aware that the images may be viewed by medical professionals as well as members of the general public, many medical journals have online versions on the internet.
Refusal to consent to secondary purposes will not affect your treatment. Your clinical team will still be able to use your photographs/video recordings for your medical records only.
Patients have the right to withdraw consent for use of their recording for teaching or publication at any time. The recording remains part of the patient confidential medical record. Please note images consented for publication can only be removed from our system and cannot be called back once published in the public domain.
Please feel free to discuss any questions with your clinical care team who will be happy to answer any of your questions.
Further information
If you need further information you can visit our website:
bristol.ac.uk/dental/treatment/patient-privacy-notice/