Taking photos
In short. Take photos inside a case, from Capture, or by handing the phone to your assistant. They never go to your phone’s gallery, and each is scrambled on your phone before it uploads. Your data stays covered as described in where your data lives.
Inside a case
Open a case and tap Take photo. The photo goes straight to that case. Above the button is a row of types: Pre-op photo, Post-op photo, Pre-op X-ray, Post-op X-ray, Intra-op and Other. One is already chosen from the case’s date and start time. Tap another if it is wrong.
Opening a case also makes it your current case on this phone for the next 12 hours. That is what lets photos from Capture or hand-off find their case. See filing.
Photographing an X-ray on a screen. Hold the phone square-on and fill the frame with the image. If you see fine lines across it, tilt the phone slightly until they go. The app shows this tip when you choose an X-ray type, and it shrinks photos in a way that keeps those screen lines out of the small previews.
From Capture
On Capture, tap Photo. The photo goes to Photos to file, with a suggestion for its case. This is the quickest way to take a photo between cases without opening one.
From your gallery
Already took the photo with your phone’s own camera? Inside a case, tap Choose from gallery. The photo keeps the time it was taken, not the time you added it, so before and after stay in the right order. Case Logbook cannot remove it from your gallery, so it reminds you to delete it there.
On a computer
Drag photos onto Photos to file in your Inbox, or onto a case’s Photos section. They keep their original time. Files that are not photos are skipped, and the app says how many. Drop the photos, not their folder.
Hand to assistant
On Capture, tap Hand to assistant, then Start. The screen becomes a camera and nothing else. Your assistant cannot open your cases, see patient names, or reach any other part of the app, and the back button does nothing. The screen shows the case by procedure and side only, with a count of photos saved. On phones that allow it, the screen stays awake. If it cannot, the screen says so.
To take the phone back, tap Done, then use your fingerprint or face, or type your backup password. A wrong password keeps the camera on. You land on Photos to file.
Photos taken during the operation file themselves to that case as intra-op, even if auto-sort is off, and appear under Filed automatically. Photos taken outside the operating time wait in Photos to file, marked Taken by your assistant. The exact timing is in filing.
Can my assistant see my cases?
No. Hand-off mode shows the camera and a count only. If the app is closed or reloaded while your assistant has it, it opens locked. Unlock, and you are back on the camera with the count kept.
What you see while it saves
Each photo says where it is:
- Waiting to upload: saved on this phone, waiting for a connection.
- Uploading 40%: on its way.
- Upload failed: the app tried a few times. Tap Retry.
- Uploading from another device: taken on another phone that has not finished.
- Unlock to view: unlock the app to see it.
A photo is removed from your phone only after our server has confirmed it holds a complete copy. If you close the app first, the photo stays and the upload carries on next time.
Less common
- Photos will not show. If the photos on a case or in Photos to file cannot be shown on this device, the rest of the page still works. The section says what went wrong and offers Try again. Nothing is deleted.
- Pinning on Android. Your phone’s own camera screen is outside Case Logbook’s control. On Android it is worth pinning the app (Settings → Security → App pinning) before handing the phone over.
- Still stuck? See getting help.