How do you capture the image of the eye on slit lamp exam either for the patient or your ophthalmology consult? It's often easier to show someone a photo rather than trying to describe that atypical dendritic lesion, degree of corneal edema, or pattern of corneal abrasion.
You, however, don't have the expensive camera attachment (nor a SLR camera for that matter).
Image from eyephotodoc.com
Trick of the Trade:
Take a photo with your mobile phone camera
- Position the patient comfortably at the slit lamp.
- Using the viewfinder lens, focus the image of the patient's eye.
- Step away from the slit lamp without moving the slit lamp or the patient.
- Place the camera lens from your iPhone (or other mobile phone camera) up against the viewfinder where your eye was.
- Take the photo.
There are several commercial iPhone adapters which help stabilize the iPhone (see second photo above), but I get reasonable high-quality images without them.
Thanks to Dr. Matt Silver (Kaiser San Diego) for the tip and Dr. David Duong for being the eye model.