How long to keep photos in the patient record

A patient's photo has a life cycle: it is born in a consultation, lives in the patient record and, one day, has to be disposed of. The question "how long should I keep it?" seems simple and has a variable answer, because it depends on the nature of the document, the professional board and the applicable legislation. Ignoring it carries two opposite risks: deleting too early and losing evidence, or keeping forever and accumulating leak risk.

This page organizes the reasoning. It does not replace the opinion of your professional board or a lawyer: legal periods change, and you must check the current rules. The references are to Brazil.

Is a photo part of the patient record?

It depends on the use. A photo taken to document the patient's condition, justify the course of action and track progress is generally part of the patient record. A photo taken for another purpose, such as publicity, has a different legal basis and consent, and is not part of the record.

This distinction matters because the patient record has a retention period set by federal and board rules, while a publicity photo follows the consent and the LGPD (Brazil's data protection law). So do not mix the two categories in the same folder. See image consent for clinical documentation and separate consent for image publication.

What periods are usually cited?

Brazilian federal legislation and board rules set minimum periods for keeping patient records. In many references, a period of twenty years from the last entry appears as the minimum for paper records, and there are specific rules for electronic records and digitization. The details, exceptions and updates should be checked in your board's rules and the current legislation.

No number on this page replaces the rule. The goal is to show that periods exist and the professional needs to know them.

Where do you keep it during the period?

Keeping something for many years calls for a suitable place. The ideal is a clinic system or a cloud with access control, access logs and backup, not a phone gallery. See the criteria in cloud storage for patient photos, storing patient photos and backing up clinical photos.

Two long-term points deserve attention: format readability (an obsolete format may be hard to open twenty years from now) and service continuity (the cloud company may shut down). Convert periodically to widely supported formats and check that export is possible. The choice of format is in clinical photo resolution and format.

What do you do at the end of the period?

At the end of the legal period, the LGPD's general rule is to delete the data when its purpose is exhausted, except for legal retention cases. That calls for a procedure, not an isolated gesture.

1. Identify the photos whose period has ended, checking the date of the last patient record entry.
2. Confirm there is no reason to keep them (ongoing lawsuit, authority request, another rule).
3. Delete from every location: system, cloud, backups and devices.
4. Record the date, the criterion and who carried it out, without keeping the deleted content.
5. Review the procedure periodically.

The hardest part is deleting from everywhere. The photo may be on the phone, the computer, in emails, in messages, in system backups and in an old account. Make an inventory of where photos are stored, which lines up with phone gallery and patient photos.

And when the patient asks for deletion?

Patients have rights under the LGPD, including asking for information about the processing and, in certain cases, deletion. In the health context, part of the data must be kept for the legal period, and part can be deleted, such as publicity photos based only on consent. The conversation needs to be clear. For the details of the flow, read deleting a patient's photo on request.

Retention and the informed consent form

The retention period and location must be clear in the form the patient signs. Include: the purpose of the photo, where it is kept, for how long and how to request withdrawal of uses that depend only on consent. Vague terms create future conflicts. Informed consent must follow the photo's life cycle, and the text should go through legal review, according to your professional board's rules.

The LGPD treats a facial image linked to health as sensitive data, which reinforces the care taken with access and disposal. A summary of the rules for the clinic is in consent and LGPD for photos.

And in Harmy?

In Harmy, projections stay in the account's history, with search by name and sessions per patient. The app is a tool to support the consultation and simulation, and it does not replace your patient record or the keeping of the original clinical photos. Account deletion can be done inside the app. For patient deletion requests, first assess what is part of the patient record and what is only simulation.

The projection is an illustrative simulation, not a promise of results, and must not be treated as a record of the patient's condition. Keep the patient record in your own system. The general usage flow is in history and actual result.

Summary for your routine

Separate patient record photos from publicity photos, check the period in your board's rules and the legislation, store in a secure place in a readable format, and dispose of with a procedure and a record. When in doubt about the period or deletion, seek legal advice specific to your situation.