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#28281
02/17/2011 8:13 PM
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Hello,
Has anyone had success with a certain camera to upload patient photos into their demographics in Amazing Charts (not in a widescreen format)? Our clinic has tried three different cameras and every time we upload the pictures, they look very distorted and elongated in the charts. We have tried all sorts of different resolution sizes and just can't get the pictures to look acceptable. Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!
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So I checked with AC to confirm what I remembered, to prevent distortion, you need to crop the photos to 1X1 proportions (e.g 100x100, 200x200, 300x300) pixels.
There are several free imaging editing tools out there, including some that are web based. we use Gimp, but I have also used Paint.NET.
From AC, the best results are apparently saving the file as .jpg (JPEG)
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I use a cheap camera I got at Costco, it's a Fuji of some sort. We use the postcard setting to keep the picture small, then crop it before importing to the chart. The hardest thing is getting my receptionist to remember to take the pictures!
Chris
Living the Dream in Alaska
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We have been using a webcam to take the pictures as the receptionist can take the picture and it is immediately available to use.
Unfortunately, most (all) of the cameras are not set up to produce a square picture that AC requires (if no distortion).
So after you have the webcam picture now you have to crop it to a square format to prevent distortion.
It would be nice if they had the pictures in a more common format, 4x3 = 640x480 = VGA.
Greg
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I agree: They should make it VGA format or self-cropping like Facebook does.
Chris
Living the Dream in Alaska
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Add that suggestion to the poll forum
Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
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Was wondering if anyone had found a better/easier solution for taking pics and adding them to AC?
David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX
David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX
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When we started with AC, we were going to add the picture to the designated box in demographics, but decided it was too much work to take them, crop them, etc. So, our solution is just to scan the patient's driver's license, and add it to imported items. We don't need to see the picture every time we open a chart.
Donna
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We are testing out something new for pics. Will post about it once we are sure that it works well.
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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I have a new receptionist now, and she almost always remembers the pictures. It does require some cropping, so I hope we can eliminate this with a better import tool.
Chris
Living the Dream in Alaska
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Anyone interested in a small imaging program?
The process:
1) take the photo, saving it to an incoming folder
2) run the ACPhotoCrop utility (this program)
3) click on the center of the face
4) An appropriately sized image in the right image file type is saved to the import folder for AC
It would require an installation package because the imaging component is a commercial (royalty free) OCX that requires registration.
I am in the process of developing this for our office in visual basic, and if it works well, would be happy to share it.
We plan to use a WiFi SD card in the camera to auto transfer the images to the network, although any set up that produces a jpg or tif file would work.
Price: feed back on how it works for you and how to improve it.
Roger
(Nephrology)
Do the right thing. The rest doesn?t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. ? --Marcus Aurelius --
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Roger, We would be interested...that is the missing link for us. We have started using an Eye-Fi card for the photos. With the card, the photo shows up in a folder at the front desk so that as the demos are typed in, the pic is put in as well. Using Microsoft photo viewer it is just a couple of steps to crop and resize, but your program would speed it up even more. And the price is right! 
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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Just powered up my Eye-Fi card.
Stay tuned.
Roger
(Nephrology)
Do the right thing. The rest doesn?t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. ? --Marcus Aurelius --
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You will love it...I think it is worthy of a post in "Tech Talk".
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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I would pay for a good program that did all that well! Please keep us posted!
Chris
Living the Dream in Alaska
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We would probably join in on checking it out. I gather this would be equally good for taking pictures of interesting things like injuries and lesions, rashes and the like on patients too. Nancy loves to do a bit of extra derm and we would love an easy to use, get a basic picture in there kind of solution.
Anyone got a solution to Flourescent tubes making patients all appear extra "Green" because of their color balance in digital pics????
"Beware of the Medical Industrial Complex"
"The Insurance Industry is a Legalized CARTEL"
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Sounds great but I use a Orbit Quickcam AF webcam which cost about 120.00 and sits on my front counter - it has controls to move it up/down/sideways on screen and set at low resolution I snap and hit import from file - no cropping, etc and it works fine.
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Sounds like a winner, Roger!
Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
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Update: got it working, but something in the code is locking the resized, "square" image so that it can't be deleted after it is imported. It IS imported into AC without difficulty,
I want to add a sizer so that lower (or higher) resolution cameras can be used.
Right now you just click on the bridge of the nose and the new, properly sized photo is created. You can view the re-click or save.
Off to my very favorite CME course today.
Roger
(Nephrology)
Do the right thing. The rest doesn?t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. ? --Marcus Aurelius --
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So the only problem is that the original photo stays in the original file where it was placed? I am sure we can live with that!
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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Thanks Steven. I ordered the Orbit Quickcam AF from Amazon and had it up and working in 15 minutes. On low resolution the pics are only around 20KB. And they look great without cropping.
David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX
David Lee, MD
IM
Dallas, TX
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Anyone got a solution to Flourescent tubes making patients all appear extra "Green" because of their color balance in digital pics???? Fluorescent bulbs are either cool white or warm white with the latter reflecting more realistic flesh tones, at least to the naked eye in exam rooms etc. Not sure re photo results but perhaps warm whites would be better?
Bob
Allergy
Mansfield, OH
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Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
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I don't know why but patients seem to love the pictures - today one of my child patients wanted to do a retake as he had grown since last one was done - pretty funny.
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Love this idea Stephen! I use this exact cam at home. I think it's about to be re-purposed!
Barbara C. Phillips, NP
Beachwater Health Associates
Olympia, WA
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Sounds great but I use a Orbit Quickcam AF webcam which cost about 120.00 and sits on my front counter - it has controls to move it up/down/sideways on screen and set at low resolution I snap and hit import from file - no cropping, etc and it works fine. Steven- Following your tip I just purchased the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF, hooked it up, and now we're hooked on it too. Thanks. As an FYI I purchased a Mfgr refurbished one off eBay for $53.99 and free shipping*. Arrived in perfect condition, downloaded software from Logitech online, in business immediately. Smallest size/resolution perfect for AC. Click on patient picture window, scroll to file first time. After that, select patient picture area and it's automatically defaulted to QuickCam photo file where just click their photo and it's in their chart. * 10 left. Cheap quick way to try recording photos for each patient.
Bob
Allergy
Mansfield, OH
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Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
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I just bought one last night too...but not off ebay. Hooked it up this morning and it took the staff all of about 2 minutes to learn to use it. Much easier than the regular digital camera I was using. Now we have to find a pretty mural to put on the wall behind the patients when they get their pics taken
Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
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Ok, I am convinced. I ordered one, too.
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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Only caveats, my experience. Downloaded Logitech software and during installation was prompted to plug in camera via USB. Install then restarted and soon saw "blue screen of death" which I hadn't seen in years. Then installed again declining to plug camera in until after total install. This worked. Also, next day was prompted to download "latest software version". Did so but didn't like interface nearly as well as original. Not as straightforward or intuitive so deleted and reinstalled original. Bliss again.
Bob
Allergy
Mansfield, OH
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No problems here with the install to an XP pro machine
Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
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We've noticed that kids are eager to have their pictures taken but it's not unusual for adults to balk at the idea. Not sure if it's "I'm not looking good till I put on make up or comb my hair" or, I swear, some seem to think this might be an FBI sting or their pics will end up on the post office wall. In any event, it's helpful to me as I can readily link a disease to a face, so to speak, but have trouble linking a name to that face. Bringing up a face with the chart dispels the anonymity.
Bob
Allergy
Mansfield, OH
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Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
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Anyone interested in a small imaging program?
The process:
1) take the photo, saving it to an incoming folder
2) run the ACPhotoCrop utility (this program)
3) click on the center of the face
4) An appropriately sized image in the right image file type is saved to the import folder for AC Roger, any update on this?
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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Yes, I'm lazy.
We use it daily.
I need to put together a very short tutorial that explains the way to tweak it to get what you want.
Plan: do the tutorial two page PDF, post the link to the install package, and let users play with it.
Would anyone rather see a YouTube video first?
Roger
(Nephrology)
Do the right thing. The rest doesn?t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. ? --Marcus Aurelius --
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How about a rough draft of a two paragraph instruction manual and a link or copy of the program, and we will take it from there...we would appreciate it!
Jon
GI
Baltimore
Reduce needless clicks!
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Hello folks.
Based on recommendations here, I bought the orbit quick-cam. Set it up. I selected lowest resolution on the preferences. However, when I try to import a picture, AC still gives me a warning about picture file being too big and the picture is still 'squished' from the sides.
Can someone who has this same camera help?
a.j. godbole
pediatrics
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We've noticed that kids are eager to have their pictures taken but it's not unusual for adults to balk at the idea. Not sure if it's "I'm not looking good till I put on make up or comb my hair" or, I swear, some seem to think this might be an FBI sting or their pics will end up on the post office wall. In any event, it's helpful to me as I can readily link a disease to a face, so to speak, but have trouble linking a name to that face. Bringing up a face with the chart dispels the anonymity.
Actually, I don't find this that unusual. In peds, we just have too many issues on taking pictures of kids. First, you really can't up to 12 months as they change too much. But, the key thing is with all the Internet stuff and weirdos nowadays, they just don't trust having pictures in someone else's possession. They want to keep them for Facebook and Twitter where it is much safer.
Actually, though, it would be much more useful to take pictures of the parents. There are just so many times that my staff will say so and so patient and then link him or her to a parents, and I have no clue.
Bert
Pediatrics
Brewer, Maine
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I setup an Eye-fi with a simple Cannon camera in the office I work with. Shared the folder that the photos download to, and placed a link on the desktop for each station. The photo is download by the time they sit down from taking it. They have been using the camera on 640X480 (files are about 60K) and the photos seem to look fine once imported. We tried webcams, but there were major lighting issues. I have been considering using a program like this one ---> Batch photo resize <--- To make the images match what AC recommends...The program resizes/crops images dropped onto itself based on what you name the program(more details in link) and saves them back in the same folder. I have played around with it some and it seems to be quick and stable.
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We use the iPhone and Dropbox. Dropbox has a feature which lets you automatically sync pictures you take with your phone.
Easy and convenient. Patient does not have to in the Exam Room either.
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