title: Can We Trust the Use of Smartphone Cameras in Clinical Practice? Laypeople Assessment of Their Image Quality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Smartphone cameras are rapidly being introduced in medical practice, among other devices for image-based teleconsultation. Little is known, however, about the actual quality of the images taken, which is the object of this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A series of nonclinical objects (from three broad categories) were photographed by a professional photographer using three smartphones (iPhone(®) 4 [Apple, Cupertino, CA], Samsung [Suwon, Korea] Galaxy S2, and BlackBerry(®) 9800 [BlackBerry Ltd., Waterloo, ON, Canada]) and a digital camera (Canon [Tokyo, Japan] Mark II). In a Web survey a convenience sample of 60 laypeople "blind" to the types of camera assessed the quality of the photographs, individually and best overall. We then measured how each camera scored by object category and as a whole and whether a camera ranked best using a Mann-Whitney U test for 2×2 comparisons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were wide variations between and within categories in the quality assessments for all four cameras. The iPhone had the highest proportion of images individually evaluated as good, and it also ranked best for more objects compared with other cameras, including the digital one. The ratings of the Samsung or the BlackBerry smartphone did not significantly differ from those of the digital camera.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whereas one smartphone camera ranked best more often, all three smartphones obtained results at least as good as those of the digital camera. Smartphone cameras can be a substitute for digital cameras for the purposes of medical teleconsulation.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden .
authors.forename: Constance
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boissin
authors.affiliation: 2 Division of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University , Bellville, South Africa .
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.affiliation: 2 Division of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University , Bellville, South Africa .
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wallis
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden .|3 Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University , Stellenbosch, South Africa .
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hasselberg
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden .|3 Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University , Stellenbosch, South Africa .|4 University of South Africa , Pretoria, South Africa .
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laflamme
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010781:Photography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000068997:Smartphone
keywords: image quality; mobile phone; smartphone; telediagnosis