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New equipment will simplify exams of sex assault
victims
BYLINE:
Isadora Vail AMERICAN-STATESMAN
STAFF
DATE: May 26, 2008
PUBLICATION:
Austin American-Statesman (TX)
EDITION:
Final
SECTION: METRO
PAGE: B01
For 15 years, Evangeline Barefoot, a sexual assault
nurse examiner in Williamson County, has had to collect
evidence with 80-year-old technology invented for detecting
cervical cancer.
But Barefoot and two other nurses in
the county will become the first in the state to use a new
system that they think will be less invasive for the patients
and give prosecutors stronger evidence more quickly.
Each nurse will have her own Secure Digital Forensic
Imaging TeleMedicine system that involves three elements: a
camera to record data, software to store the data and an
encrypted folder in which the information is transmitted.
"The entire forensic folder can be sent with one
e-mail," said Linda Sifuentes, a sexual assault nurse examiner
at Scott & White University Medical Campus in Round Rock
who received the new system May 9 .
Sifuentes said this is different from the old method,
which involved several more time-consuming steps, including
taking pictures with several different cameras, printing out
those pictures, gathering evidence and delivering all samples
to law enforcement officials . The new machine, which costs
about $18,500, will allow law enforcement officials and
prosecutors to see the photographic file and documentation
immediately, but physical evidence such as DNA will still be
taken to the state for processing.
The colposcope that had been used cost up to $40,000
and was invasive, nurses said. It is a camera attached to a
long, adjustable arm.
"It basically looks like something a dentist would
use," said Sheila Dolbow, a sexual assault nurse examiner at
Cedar Park Regional Medical Center who was the first to use
the new system in April after the hospital bought it. The
medical center then joined the Sexual Assault Response Team to
perform examinations for the county.
Sifuentes and Dolbow have their own systems at their
hospitals, and Barefoot will use the one at the Williamson
County Children's Advocacy Center. The nurses will take turns
being on call for the center and will examine children who may
be sexual assault victims.
Almost 80 sexual assault exams were performed last
year, Barefoot said, and nurses have already seen a 12 percent
increase from this time last year.
Dolbow said the colposcope, which is used to take
close-up pictures and video, is especially intimidating for
kids. She said the camera used in the new system is portable
and looks like a digital camera.
"This job is already frustrating because all you want
to do is make things better for the patients," Dolbow said.
"With this, I think we can do it."
The camera is used to take pictures of the body and can
zoom in by more than 100 percent on a photo without it
becoming blurry, Dolbow said. The software is designed so that
large files with pictures can be sent through e-mail, and
folders are all encrypted at a military level.
"In other words, no one's going to get these files that
shouldn't," said Ward Allen, a forensic imaging consultant
with Secure Digital Forensic Imaging in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Allen said Williamson County is one of about 30 places
around the country using the system, which was developed after
four years of research.
John Foster, a detective with the Williamson County
sheriff's office, said the system sounds foolproof.
"The only person who won't benefit from this is the
suspect," Foster said. The exam "is a beneficial tool in
observing evidence in sexual assault cases, and these cases
are made due to this exam."
Although Foster and the three nurses who are pioneering
the system think the technology will hold up in court, others
have doubts.
"All I say is beware of the latest fad or latest
machinery," said Keith Hampton, a criminal defense lawyer in
Austin. "While most are pretty good, they are made by humans,
and we are fallible."
The system Barefoot will use was donated to the
Williamson County Children's Advocacy Center by Patricia Crane
at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Crane, who is a forensic nurse researcher and a sexual
assault nurse examiner, said the county, with the involvement
of law enforcement, health care providers and community
leaders, has what she considers a model program.
ivail@statesman.com; 246-0053
(BOX)
How the system works
Shoot: Pictures are taken with an auto-focus and
auto-lighting camera. Photos can be blown up by 100 percent
for trial purposes without altering the original image.
Store: A file is made in an online database where
nurses can store the pictures as well as other forensic
evidence.
Send: The forensic files can be sent through e-mail or
brought up on the database with encryption that is up to
military standards.
Kelly West
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sheila Dolbow is one of three nurses using a new system
for exams of sexual assault victims. She said the new camera
is less invasive than older equipment.
Copyright
(c) 2008 Austin American-Statesman
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