Abstract
Introduction: The purpose of this article is to inform clinicians about a software application that can be downloaded free from the Internet to recover damaged, corrupted, or deleted photographs from digital cameras or digital camera media cards. Digital photography has become the standard for clinical photography over the past decade. Although digital photography offers many advantages over film or slide photography, some distinct disadvantages exist. One of the biggest disadvantages is that a digital camera media card may become damaged or corrupted and hundreds of images can be lost in a fraction of a second. The average surgeon who takes many pictures each day will likely, at some point, be faced with a loss or potential loss of data. Materials and Methods: Many clinicians are unaware that digital images are usually recoverable in minutes with simple, free software designed specifically for that purpose. Results: Software designed to recover lost digital images has the potential to recover photographs, video, and audio files. Discussion: This article also explains precautions and caveats for avoiding data loss when dealing with digital camera media. This article is a “9-1-1” for digital camera emergencies, and clipping it out and tucking it in your desk drawer may at sometime make a bad camera day better.