A work station for use in a system for medical dose preparation management, the work station comprising: a base; a medication preparation staging region disposed relative to the base and operable to supportively engage at least one medication receptacle; an imaging device having an imaging field encompassing the medication preparation staging region, wherein the imaging device is operable to output a video data stream of the imaging field; a processor in operative communication with the imaging device to receive the video data stream of the imaging field; a user control device in operative communication with the processor to initiate a capture of a medical dose preparation image from the video data stream in response to a user input received at the user control device; wherein the processor is further operable to perform an auto cropping operation on the medical dose preparation image by comparing the medical dose preparation image with a background image to identify a region of interest corresponding to a medication receptacle (100, 100a, 100b) that is disposed in the medication preparation staging region, wherein the processor is operable to analyze a predetermined subset of the digital image data to identify the region of interest; wherein the analysis includes comparing the predetermined subset of the digital image data to a corresponding subset of a background image of the medical dose preparation staging region that does not include any medication receptacle in the medical dose preparation staging region; wherein the predetermined subset of the digital image data corresponds to a plurality of pixels of the digital image data that extend across the digital image data in a first direction and in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; wherein the plurality of pixels form a grid over the digital image data, wherein the grid comprises grid lines (210,212) for locating medical receptacles and the grid lines are spaced in relation to a known size of the medication receptacles; and a memory in operative communication with the processor to receive and store the medical dose preparation image data. a base; a medication preparation staging region disposed relative to the base and operable to supportively engage at least one medication receptacle; an imaging device having an imaging field encompassing the medication preparation staging region, wherein the imaging device is operable to output a video data stream of the imaging field; a processor in operative communication with the imaging device to receive the video data stream of the imaging field; a user control device in operative communication with the processor to initiate a capture of a medical dose preparation image from the video data stream in response to a user input received at the user control device; wherein the processor is further operable to perform an auto cropping operation on the medical dose preparation image by comparing the medical dose preparation image with a background image to identify a region of interest corresponding to a medication receptacle (100, 100a, 100b) that is disposed in the medication preparation staging region, wherein the processor is operable to analyze a predetermined subset of the digital image data to identify the region of interest; wherein the analysis includes comparing the predetermined subset of the digital image data to a corresponding subset of a background image of the medical dose preparation staging region that does not include any medication receptacle in the medical dose preparation staging region; wherein the predetermined subset of the digital image data corresponds to a plurality of pixels of the digital image data that extend across the digital image data in a first direction and in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; wherein the plurality of pixels form a grid over the digital image data, wherein the grid comprises grid lines (210,212) for locating medical receptacles and the grid lines are spaced in relation to a known size of the medication receptacles; and a memory in operative communication with the processor to receive and store the medical dose preparation image data.