Clarity of Photos Posted by Clinics

[Spanker]

I enjoy seeing clinic posts at the end of the month, which seems to be when a small wave of them usually come in. 

 

However, my patience for poor photography is waning and I believe very good photography should be required by physicians that are posting their results when they are recommended. 

 

I am not talking about patients. They can post poor photos if they want.  We do not deserve anything from them and anything they provide is a generous bonus.  I am talking about clinics. 

 

I know that the moderators give the clinics requirements for posting photos and I encourage them to hold the clinics to it. 

 

We have cell phones today that can take excellent photos in good lighting, yet a lot of the photos posted lately look like they were taken with potatoes. 

 

I caution the readers to not consider clinics who post poor photos, because if there is low attention to detail in documentation and marketing, there is a chance that there will be low attention to detail on the operating table. 

 

All the best,

 

Spanker

Edited December 1, 2018 by Spanker

[Spanker]

2 minutes ago, Phil36fromaus said:

What are the requirements?

I wholeheartedly agree Spanker. My last transplant i went to a clinic that uses deceptively soft lighting to bolster their results. In real life i had a thinning crown, but under their lighting I have a full head of hair. I've seen other posts here where doctors use certain angles to make their work look better than it is a well. If you are doing quality work your results should be able to withstand the (literal) light of day.

How can a patient reasonably assess and moderate their expectations for surgery if different clinics are not held to the same photographic standards? 

If the pre op photos are in the same lighting, this would be a hard call to make.  I think that resolution of your photo is good, and I would say that people with a full head of hair could look thin in that lighting on the left. 

 

I say that to say, I'm not wanting clinics to post photos that make their work look bad, I just want to be able see it  

 

Phil, they have a sticky thread on how to post photos in the Post by Clinics forum. 

[Melvin- Admin]

12 minutes ago, Phil36fromaus said:

What are the requirements?

I wholeheartedly agree Spanker. For my last transplant i went to a clinic that uses very soft lighting for their photographic documentation. In real life i had a thinning crown, but under their lighting I appear to have a full head of hair. I've seen other posts here where doctors use certain angles to make their work look better than it is as well. If you are doing quality work shouldn't your results be able to withstand the (literal) light of day?

So given this, how can a patient reasonably assess and moderate their expectations for surgery if different clinics are not held to the same photographic standards? 

 

Phil,

I think you are being quite harsh with your previous clinic. Especially considering the fact that you yourself agree that your issue was largely a miscommunication issue rather than something the clinic did on purpose. I have seen you post negative things about your previous clinic on quite a few threads. All of this even after the clinic offered to do a touch-up for free and responded to you directly.

While you have every right to be disappointed and unhappy. I think it's only fair to treat the clinic with some respect seeing as they have stood by their work and have treated you with respect.

[Melvin- Admin]

It would be nice to have video documentation. Unfortunately, in some countries patients need to give consent to have their video posted publicly. Most hair transplant patients want to keep their procedure a secret. Therefore, the majority of patients do not want videos taken of them for fear that someone may discover that they have had a transplant. In my opinion, we should all be a little more honest, this would help remove the negative stigma associated with hair transplants in general.

However, I encourage everyone to call out when something doesn't look right, if the photos look poor or the angles don't match say something. After all we are a public forum and that's what it is all about.

[LonelyGraft]

Spanker

great post, I couldn’t agree more. Another thing I hate that a few unnamed clinics do on this site is not use the same backdrop for the before and afters. I don’t understand why this concept is so hard to understand

[Raker]

Totally agree, it’s unacceptable & shouldn’t be allowed. 

[Melvin- Admin]

3 hours ago, Phil36fromaus said:

I believe most clinics need patient consent to post photos as well (?) so as long a that is given by the patient and the identity is kept secret it might be possible in the future. 

I remember sending a video to one clinic and the response was something like  "wow i should start asking all my patients to do this." It seems like it might not only be better as a way to assess results generally but also as a diagnostic tool for surgeons themselves

Yes that’s true, but patients are more inclined to accept their photos to be taken than a video. I know I initially declined a video be taken of me, but changed my mind the second time around.