hours for non-Membership files
Regular trial or expressly grandfathered source media, generated PDFs, and image-bearing share packages.
File retention
Clinical source files are time-limited. Other records follow stated purposes.
DigiHoof is a measurement and reporting workflow, not a PACS or veterinary medical-record archive. Clinics must download every image and report required for their permanent record. A separately permitted model-improvement copy is not part of the clinic's archive.
days for Membership source media
DICOM radiographs and clinical photographs.
days for Membership reports
Generated PDFs and image-bearing share packages.
structured measurements
Measurement records are not deleted on the 24-, 30-, or 90-day file schedule.
*Measurement history remains while the clinic account is active, unless the clinic requests deletion or a different period is required for legal, security, dispute, audit, backup, or contractual reasons.
Optional model improvement
What the model-input bundle may keep
- Radiograph pixels and corrected landmark geometry
- Measurements, limb, laterality, fore or hind designation, and projection or view
- Examination date and necessary technical rendering fields
- Model, workflow, and method versions
- Keyed opaque clinic, study, subject-group, and DICOM-identifier tokens
Separated from model input
Direct identity, linkage, and free text
- Horse and owner names
- User names and email addresses
- Free-text notes and reports
- Direct patient identifiers
- Clinic/source linkage and submitted vendor-private metadata
Clinic name/raw identifier, original DigiHoof study UUID, raw DICOM unique identifiers, and submitted DICOM metadata may be retained in a separately access-controlled provenance record for source linkage and duplicate control. They are not model inputs or portable training-manifest fields. Vendor-private fields may contain arbitrary submitted content and are not assumed to be de-identified. This is a pseudonymized package, not an anonymous one. A file with known or unknown burned-in annotations may be retained in restricted staging, but is not used for training until reviewed, redacted, or explicitly cleared.
A separate purpose-based schedule
Clinical deletion does not automatically delete a permitted model copy.
DigiHoof creates the restricted copy only after the uploader separately chooses Yes for that study. It is retained only while assigned to documented model-development, validation, safety-monitoring, or released-model provenance work and is reviewed at least annually. If no documented active purpose remains, it is deleted or irreversibly de-identified within 90 days.
After an authorized withdrawal, DigiHoof stops using the copy for new work and removes eligible working copies within 90 days. Withdrawal cannot generally reverse completed training or validation or remove what a released model has already learned. Protected backups expire on their normal restricted schedule.
The restricted copy is not sold, published, used for advertising, supplied to other clinics, or offered as a third-party dataset. It is not available through DigiHoof as a retrievable clinical study and cannot reconstruct a source study deleted on the clinical schedule. Applicable verified privacy requests are still handled as required by law.
Retained for comparison
Small, structured study data
- Measurement name, value, and unit
- Horse, limb, projection, and examination date
- Calibration and scale information
- Workflow, model, and method version
- Veterinarian-confirmed landmark geometry
- Small flattened preview, with annotations when available
Deleted on schedule
Large image-bearing files
- Original DICOM radiographs
- Uploaded clinical photographs
- Generated image files and PDFs
- Image-bearing share packages
- Temporary processing and export files
After source deletion
Functions that require the original pixels are no longer available.
- Retrieving or re-windowing the original DICOM
- Re-running a newer model on the deleted source image
- Changing the source crop, orientation, or image-quality settings
- Rebuilding an image-bearing PDF or share package from deleted files
A measurement-only report or share can still be created from retained structured measurements. It does not reconstruct the original radiograph.
Share links
Expiry applies to the packaged copy served by DigiHoof.
An image-bearing share is available only until its displayed expiry and can be revoked earlier. Expiry prevents continued access through that link; it cannot delete a copy a recipient already downloaded, printed, forwarded, or captured.
A later measurement-only share is a new link containing structured values only. It contains no DICOM, clinical photograph, retained preview, or PDF.
Clinic responsibility
Export all records required by your jurisdiction, practice policy, insurer, client agreement, or professional obligation before the displayed deadline.
Review how retained measurements support serial comparison.
Measurement history remains useful after image-bearing files reach the end of their retention period.