For years, OhioHealth’s 25 emergency departments have been using a combination of different technologies to conduct sexual assault kits, or the evidence collection survivors can use to seek justice against their assailants.
Some nurses had to juggle a handheld digital camera and a blacklight to conduct those exams. Some used the same bulky technology used by OBGYNs for pap smears. It wasn’t standard and it wasn’t seamless, said Tara Purdy, the manager of the hospital system’s Sexual Violence Services.
“Some of these exams can take up to five to six hours,” she said.
But now, those nurses are getting a major upgrade to the tools they use. Each hospital, from Berger Hospital in Circleville to Southeastern Medical Center in Cambridge, will have a Cortexflo camera, built specifically for forensics
Purdy said not only will the cameras capture higher quality photos, it will make the examinations faster and less invasive for patients.
“Survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, they've already gone through something horrific,” Purdy said. “And when they come into the emergency department, we don't want to re-traumatize them.”
Cortexflo camera features
The camera has a host of features that allow it to clearly capture physical signs of abuse. It’s fitted with a ring light, so that photographs of injuries are clearer. It has a lens that can focus and zoom in on bruises without pixelating.
Purdy said its contrast filter can enhance important details that were largely missed by past equipment.
“It can show scratches or bruises or fingerprints on the body that would be almost impossible to catch with a handheld camera,” Purdy said.
Plus, it has a built-in blue light that can detect traces of dried fluids, like saliva and semen. Those photos can provide vital evidence in sexual assault cases. The camera can be operated by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners with a foot pedal, allowing them to continue sensitive exams without stopping to grab a camera.
Sheree Ford, associate manager of forensics at OhioHealth, said these features mean her team will no longer have to pull in other equipment to conduct kits.
“The Cortexflo lets us offer care that is both medically sound, it's emotionally respectful, it is trauma informed and really just that kind of support is what every single survivor that comes in deserves,” Ford said.
A path to justice
Not every survivor of sexual assault will go on to pursue a criminal case, but for those that do, the more precise the evidence, the better, said Stephanie Scalise, managing attorney with the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence.
With experience as both a prosecutor and defense attorney, she sees the upgraded cameras as an extremely helpful tool for ensuring justice.
“Any time that we can capture more evidence, any time that we can have more ways of ferreting out the truth – whatever the truth may really be – is always valuable, not only to survivors, but to society and our community as a whole,” she said.
Still, she says there’s going to be a learning curve for the court system. For instance, she said, judges will need to grasp exactly what the camera’s contrast filters do.
“You're gonna need some type of testimony, at least at the beginning of using it, to explain why that is not changing the evidence, why that might be making it easier to see but is not creating something that wasn't there,” Scalise said.
More than evidence
Regardless of whether sexual assault survivors choose to try a case, Scalise said these higher quality photos can help survivors better understand what happened to them.
“I think that the majority of sexual assault survivors are not first thinking about how they're gonna prove a case,” she said. “Their first thought is, ‘How do I get safe?’”
These sexual assault kits can be the first step to identifying the medical care they need and to start the emotional healing process.
That was the case for Michelle Yeasting’s family. After her daughters were sexually abused, Yeasting said they felt isolated. A sexual assault kit was the first step to their recovery.
She’s excited to see tech that makes those kits more accurate and dependable becoming commonplace. That, she believes, will help more survivors feel seen.
“To have a technology that says, ‘Here I told you, I told you this happened to me.’ A bruise or a thumbprint or something to say ‘Yes this happened to me’...” Yeasting said. “It just changes people’s lives.”
