Image consent & anonymisation

Scope

This standard operating procedure governs every clinical image published on skinoncology.net — clinical photography, dermoscopy, intra-operative photography, histology and radiology.

Consent

• Written, informed, documented consent is obtained from the patient (or legal representative) for educational and publication use on a public website.
• Consent is obtained using the platform's consent form, which specifies: scope of use (web, print, teaching), duration (indefinite unless withdrawn), and anonymisation.
• Patients retain the right to withdraw consent at any time via the contact form; images are removed within 14 days.

Anonymisation

• No identifying features visible (eyes, tattoos, distinctive scars unless clinically essential) unless a separate explicit consent is documented.
• Metadata stripped before upload.
• EXIF data removed by the image pipeline automatically.

Licensing

• Free-tier images published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC-BY-NC).
• Pro-tier images may be All Rights Reserved.
• Every image is tagged with licence, credit, consent status and anonymisation confirmation.

Minors and protected groups

Images of minors and other protected groups require parental/guardian consent, heightened anonymisation and author review before publication.

Audit

A quarterly audit confirms every published image has a traceable consent record. Images without a confirmed record are taken down pending resolution.