Abstract
When talking about the evolution of the digestive endoscope, the electronic endoscope took the place of the fiberscope. As for endoscopic imaging, digital imaging took the place of film images. Digital images have some superior points compared to film images, such as resolution, modification, analysis, transmission and filing. However, various problems have cropped up during the era of digital imaging in digestive endoscopy. For example, we have to admit that less attention is paid to the endoscopic findings during endoscopic examinations, and a decreased need has appeared as regards the detailed observation of the endoscopic findings. The latter is caused not only by the direct pasting of the digital endoscopic image to the endoscopic report sheet without any sketch of the lesion, but also by use of MST (Minimal Standard Terminology). Owing to these problems, the ability of the endoscopist to make a diagnosis based on the endoscopic findings is continuously decreasing. Additional problems are the difficulty of utilizing the diversifying digital images, the easiness of digital image forgery and the easiness of digital image with patient's informations leakage to the outside of hospital. We should always pay attention to these serious consequences and make an effort to establish a full-dress training system and develop a forgery detection system for endoscopic digital images.