Patient consent & your responsibility

Effective date: 1 October 2026 · A practical guide for practitioners and their staff using CASYN · Ashorin Technologies

Clinical photos and videos are some of the most sensitive records a patient has. CASYN keeps them on your phone and encrypts your backups, but the most important protection is how they are taken, kept and shared. That part is in your hands.

Laws and professional rules differ from country to country. This guide describes good practice that fits most of them; where your law or regulator asks for more, follow that.

1. Ask before you record

Get your patient's consent before you photograph, film or audio-record them. Consent should be:

• Informed — explain why you are recording, who will see it, where it will be kept and for how long.

• Specific — consent for treatment records is not consent for teaching, publication or social media. Ask for each use separately.

• Freely given — the patient's care must not depend on agreeing to photos for teaching or publicity.

• Withdrawable — tell patients they can change their mind, and respect it for any future use.

Take extra care with

• Children: consent from a parent or legal guardian; involve the child as far as their age allows.

• Patients who cannot decide for themselves: follow your law on who may consent for them.

• Faces, tattoos, and intimate or sensitive areas: record only when clinically needed, preferably with a chaperone, and never share without explicit consent.

• Emergencies: if you record without consent for urgent care, ask for consent as soon as the patient is able, and do not use the record for anything else until then.

2. Keep a record of the consent

Written consent is the safest. A signed form, or a note of verbal consent with date and what was agreed, should stay with the patient's record.

In CASYN: Photograph the signed consent form into the same case, and add a tag such as “Consent” so you can find it later.

3. Record only what you need

• Frame the photo on the clinical area; avoid faces, jewellery, tattoos and backgrounds that identify the patient unless they matter clinically.

• Keep identifying details (phone numbers, addresses, ID numbers) out of photos and notes unless you need them.

In CASYN: Use Edit → Crop to remove identifying parts of a picture. When you save, choose Make copy to keep the full original in the case as well, or Overwrite original if the identifying parts should not be kept at all.

4. Share safely

• Share only with people who need it for the patient's care, or as the patient agreed.

• Remove identifying details before sharing for opinions, teaching or case discussions.

• Check file names. When you export whole cases, CASYN names folders after the patient, diagnosis and ID so you can find them. Rename them before sending outside your practice.

• Be careful with messaging groups: once a photo is in a group, you cannot take it back.

• For publication, conferences or social media: separate explicit consent, identifying features removed, and your professional body's rules on advertising and publicity.

In CASYN: Turn on the watermark when you share, so a picture that travels further still shows where it came from.

5. Protect the phone that holds the records

• Use a screen lock (PIN, fingerprint or face) on the phone.

• Turn on App lock in CASYN (Settings → Lock & Biometrics), especially if staff or family can reach your phone.

• Turn on Block screenshots (same page) if you want to stop records being captured from the screen.

• Keep backups turned on, and keep access to the Google account they are linked to.

• If staff use CASYN for you, they act on your instructions and you remain responsible (Terms of Use, section 2). Tell them these rules.

6. If a phone is lost or records go to the wrong person

1. Lock or erase the phone remotely with Google's Find My Device (google.com/android/find).

2. Change your Google account password and remove the phone from your account.

3. Restore your cases to a new phone from your backup.

4. Write down what happened, when, and which patients may be affected.

5. Check whether your law requires you to tell the patients or a regulator, and within what time — many laws set short deadlines.

7. Keeping and deleting records

• Many places require clinical records to be kept for a minimum number of years. Find out yours and keep your records (and backups) at least that long.

• When records are no longer needed, delete them: delete the case, then empty Trash. Remember old backups too.

• Before selling or giving away a phone, move your data off it and reset it to factory settings.

8. When a patient asks about their records

Patients may ask to see or get a copy of their records, to correct them, or to have them deleted. Because the records are yours, not ours, these requests come to you. Answer them as your law requires — some records must be kept even if a patient asks for deletion.

In CASYN: Use Export on a case to give the patient a copy of their photos and notes.

9. Consent form template

A ready-to-print version of this form is included in the app. Print it, add your clinic's name or stamp, and have the patient sign it. Keep the signed copy with the patient's record — for example, photograph it into the case. You may adapt it for your practice; check it against your local law and your regulator's guidance before use.

Download the consent form (PDF) 

10. This is guidance, not legal advice

This page describes general good practice. It is not legal advice and does not replace your law, your regulator's rules or your professional judgement. Your responsibilities as a user are set out in the Terms of Use, and how CASYN handles information in the Privacy Policy.