Audit-Ready Wound Photo Metadata: Timestamps, Compression, and Chain of Custody

An image without provenance is a liability. In a records request, the auditor doesn't just want to see the wound — they want to know when it was taken, by whom, on what device, and whether anything about it has changed since.

The metadata that matters

• Capture timestamp to the second, tied to a synchronized clock — not the phone's local time zone drift.
• Provider identity — the signed-in user, not just the device owner.
• Encounter linkage so the image is inseparable from the note it supports.
• Device and app version for reproducibility and defect tracking.
• Calibration data — the depth signal or fiducial that turns pixels into millimeters.
• Original hash so any downstream copy can be proven identical to the source.

Compression is a compliance issue

Every re-save of a JPEG loses information. If a photo is captured in-app, exported to a phone gallery, emailed to a workstation, and re-uploaded into the chart, the file the auditor sees is not the file the clinician took. WoundScribe keeps the original in place — no export loop — and derives thumbnails and annotations as separate layers.

Chain of custody

Every access, edit to the border, and change to the measurement is logged with user and timestamp. The signed measurement is immutable; amendments are appended, never overwritten. That's what a chain of custody looks like in software.

Where this lives

Metadata rides with the image inside the AI-powered EMR for wound care, and the audit trail feeds directly into WISER claims and compliance when a records request comes in. No zip files, no scrambling.