My experience with medical photography dated back to 1976 when I was a first-year general surgery resident in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).  My mentor, Dr. George Eufemio, influenced me into medical photography.  He did not tell me to go into medical photography.  However, just witnessing his collection of medical pictures and the utility he derived from such collection, he used them in facilitating his teaching and research, I realized the importance of medical photography.  Thus, after I got my first lump-sum salary in October, 1976, I was receiving only about PhP 700 per month, I bought a Pentax camera and started taking pictures of my patients and objects of medical interest.  I was practically spending all my salary on medical photography – ektachrome films, kodaliths for word slides, developing expenses, etc    Fortunately, my expenses on medical photography would be reimbursed by the prize money I got from winning research contests (using my slide collection). 

I indexed all my slide pictures together with patient data, histopath result, and follow-up outcome data.  It was really a very tedious task done on about 20,000 slide pictures that I collected during my 5-year residency in PGH.  The trade-off was a more astute clinician who can easily make a diagnosis just based on interview and physical examination without relying too much on laboratory diagnostic procedures.  The other effect was an astute surgeon who can easily make a diagnosis just based on the gross appearance of the pathology without relying too much on microscopic examination by the pathologists.  In other words, medical photography greatly reinforced my training and learning as a physician and as a surgeon mainly in terms of a diagnostic skill based on pattern recognition (one that is derived from studying and focusing on the pattern of a disease when taking a picture, then correlating the pattern with the final diagnosis, and then recognizing the pattern in a future or another patient).

My very first camera, Pentax K1000, which is still functional as of February 19, 2012, which I bought during my residency in the Philippine General Hospital in 1976.

The second Pentax MX was given to me by my sister.

Film-camera in contrast to digital camera nowadays!

Use of Kodaliths in yesteryears (resulting in black background and white letters which can be colored with pen)  - very tedious, had to make lettering for the slide before taking pictures of it, then wait for the processing, about 3 days, then mount it in slide frame and then label.

Kodalith slide with colored words.

Word slide of yesteryears using Ektachrome (cheaper than Kodachrome at those times).  Slide with blue background and white letters could be colored.  More expensive than slides from Kodaliths.  Those where the days - 1976 to 1981!  Tedious and expensive!

ROJ@12feb17;12feb19