What is it and why do we need it?

The photos that teachers show in class should represent the patients we serve and the diversity of our students and clinicians. The OHSU Educational Use Photo Diversity Repository Project arose from an identified need for teachers of health professions students to help their students visualize pathophysiological conditions in diverse populations. The Repository is a separate collection in OHSU Library’s existing secure Digital Asset Management System (DAM) that will contain diverse digital images for educational use. These photos will be taken and submitted by staff and faculty.

This digital image collection will begin to provide teachers of health professions students access to the photographs they need so that their students can learn to recognize various pathophysiological conditions in skin of various colors, increase their awareness of issues related to health and diversity, and prepare them for more effective clinical work with their future patients.  

What photos are needed?

Any visible sign of injury or disease on skin of color is needed. We need photos of simple things as well as more complex visible pathophysiologies. Here are some examples:

• Swollen ankles or edema anywhere
• Inflammation
• Bruise
• Sutured cut
• Open wound
• Atrophied arm or leg after removal of a cast
• Jaundice
• Hives
• Angioedema
• Rash
• Keloids
• Cyanosis
• Distended neck veins

How to access the images

The OHSU Educational Use Photo Diversity Repository current has an initial selection of images available for internal to OHSU download. The images can be accessed through the library's secure Digital Asset Management Systems. To get access to these images, please email piercepa@ohsu.edu.

We are reaching out to clinicians and faculty across campus to incorporate existing collections of photographs or photographs created at OHSU.  Please contact Pam Pierce, piercepa@ohsu.edu, if you have photographs, suggestions, or questions.

Developed resources reported in site are supported by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) under cooperative agreement number UG4LM012343 with University of Washington. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Two guides have been created to help educators in finding additional photos. "Journal Articles with Photographs of Visible Diseases and Conditions in People with Skin of Various Colors" and "Diverse Images and Audiovisuals for Educating Health Professionals" which includes a list of openly accessible digital libraries.