Best Practices: Patient Photos in Medical Marketing

Photo Credit: practicefusion.com

The looks on your patients faces say it all; gratitude, relief, friendliness and trust. Without words they capture much of what you want prospective patients to know. With the right patient photo you can enhance your medical marketing, but you'll have to be careful in how you go about it.

Don't start snapping pictures until you have crafted a policy that will protect both your practice and your patients. Privacy regulations coupled with the sensitive nature of medical procedures make this imperative a must.

An important part of any policy regarding the use of patient photos in medical marketing is informed consent. You can find an excellent article on the Plastic Surgery Education Network website about the dos and dont's of using patient photos. The article includes a customizable consent form. They advise informing patients up-front how and where their photos will be used, e.g. educational, social media. And it would be a good idea to double check before the pictures go live to be sure your patients aren't having any second thoughts.

One more thing. When you save your patients photos use a number rather then their name so you don't accidentally leave back-door identifiers that could show up in an image search.

Good luck!