Filing photos
In short. A photo that is not on a case waits in Photos to file, at the top of your Inbox. You file it in two taps, or auto-sort and hand-off do it for you when the time fits. Your phone decides all of it, and it is scrambled like the rest of your data (where your data lives).
Photos to file
Photos are grouped by month, then day, then session: photos taken close together (no gap over 20 minutes) for the same case. Each session shows its time range and a suggestion:
- One case: for example Total knee replacement (right) · 09:00 · Post-op. Tap File here, check the type, and tap File N photos.
- Two cases: when a photo could be the post-op of one case or the pre-op of the next, both are shown and you choose. The app never guesses between two patients.
- No suggestion: the day’s cases are listed as one-tap choices.
Pre-op, intra-op and post-op are proposed from the case’s operating times, or from when you dictated it. You can always pick X-ray or another type when filing.
Choose another shows cases from three days either side, and searches by name, MRN or procedure. Select lets you tick single photos, to split a session across two patients. Teaching file and Delete work on the session or your selection.
A photo still uploading says Backing up — you can file it once it’s saved. Photos waiting over a week bring a weekly reminder card; Later hides it.
Auto-sort
Auto-sort files a photo to the case you had open, without a tap, when its time fits that case’s operating times:
- Pre-op: up to 12 hours before the operation starts, on the case’s day.
- Intra-op: during the operation, give or take 15 minutes.
- Post-op: up to 24 hours after the operation ends.
It is off until you turn it on. The first time a photo would fit, your Inbox asks once: Turn on auto-sort or Not now. Switch it, and change the three windows, in Settings → Auto-sort photos.
Which case counts
A photo taken from Capture auto-files only if the case was opened, or captured into, on this phone in the last 12 hours. Otherwise it waits for you.
Hand to assistant photos need the same current case, but they use only the operating time (15 minutes either side), file as intra-op, and do so even when auto-sort is off. See taking photos.
What auto-sort never files
Auto-sort never moves a photo you added inside a case, or anything in your Teaching file. It never files a photo from your gallery or a computer, a photo whose time is not known, a photo from before the case’s day, a photo for a case with no operating times, or a photo another case could claim. These wait in Photos to file, and a short line says why. When operating times arrive later, auto-sort looks again.
Can auto-sort put a photo on the wrong patient?
Only inside the rules above, for example two patients operated on back to back when you did not open the second case. That is why every automatic filing has an Undo, and a photo two cases could claim is never filed.
Does the server decide?
No. Your phone makes every decision. The server is told only which photo moved to which case.
Filed automatically
Every photo filed for you shows Filed automatically. In your Inbox, Filed automatically lists the last 7 days, grouped by case. Nothing pops up and nothing is sent to your phone.
- Undo on a photo, or Undo all on a case, puts it back in Photos to file. A photo you undo is never filed automatically again.
- Looks right clears a case from the list. All look right clears them all.
- Check this one marks a photo that may belong to a case logged since, such as the next patient’s pre-op photo. It stays where it is until you move it.
- In the photo’s Edit, it reads Filed automatically on [date], and Undo, back to Photos to file puts it back.
If you undo more than 1 in 10 automatic filings in a month, your Inbox offers to turn auto-sort off. Hand-off photos still file themselves.
Teaching file
For a photo not tied to a logged case, such as an outpatient X-ray, choose Teaching file in Photos to file. Pick Photo or X-ray, the body region, an optional note, and record consent. The region and note are scrambled on your phone. It has its own section under Cases → Photos, where you can edit the details, change the consent, move it back to Photos to file, or delete it.
Moving a photo
Open a photo on a case and tap Edit. Change type re-files it on the same case. Move to Photos to file takes it off the case so you can file it elsewhere.
Less common
- Time not known. The app reads the time from the photo itself, on your phone, before removing the camera details. Screenshots, forwarded images and some gallery copies carry none. They wait under Time not known, and the app asks which case they belong to.
- Deleting. See finding photos.