Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Stereotypes in medical photographs

From BMJ:

If you search "medicine" on Google Images, you get a hundred million photographs.

The most common image is a stethoscope. The next is a bottle of pills (or, sometimes, red and black capsules). The next is a surgeon, masked and gowned, slicing skin with a scalpel.

Try "patient" and you will find lots of people in stripy pyjamas, lying obediently in bed, often with a spotty rash or a leg strung up in an orthopaedic hoist.

New images are needed to break the century-old stereotypes in medical photographs.

References:
New images needed: stereotypes in medical photographs. BMJ 2010;340:c1524.

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