The June JADA special supplement, "Going Digital," discussed the use of digital imaging in our profession. One of the notable benefits of digital radiographs is the ease of sharing them with other practitioners. Unfortunately, the information attached to an e-mailed, digitized or scanned image can be quite variable. In my practice, it is common to receive an image file with the cryptic "x567895.jpg" filename. Even worse is an image that is flipped or reversed, which potentially could lead to wrong or incorrect treatment. The dates of the exposure often are lacking, which makes comparisons questionable.
There should be a common standard of information included with any digital image. This should apply if the image is printed or sent via the Internet. I would propose that the image file name should be the patient’s name, the date the image was exposed and the area of the exposure. In the case of panoramic radiographs, right and left sides should be plainly marked.
Equipment manufacturers and sellers should incorporate a convenient workflow, macro or automatic method to share this information in a common format. Dentists and staff members using this new technology should be aware of the importance of including the basic accompanying information when sharing digital images. This clearly will improve communication between practitioners for the benefit of our patients.
