Development and evaluation of an international teleproctoring program for bronchoscopic procedures

Area of Science:

• Medical procedures
• Respiratory medicine
• Surgical training

Background:

• Traditional face-to-face proctoring for medical procedures presents significant carbon footprint and logistical challenges.
• The safety and efficacy of remote teleproctoring, especially in the respiratory field, remain largely unexplored.
• Developing sustainable and efficient alternatives to conventional proctoring is crucial for modern medical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, implement, and evaluate a remote teleproctoring program specifically for bronchoscopy procedures.
• To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of real-time data streaming for remote procedural guidance.
• To compare the outcomes of teleproctoring with traditional on-site proctoring.

Main Methods:

• Seventy-eight targeted lung denervation procedures were conducted across UK hospitals.
• Twenty procedures utilized remote teleproctoring with real-time multimodality data streamed to an off-site proctor.
• Fifty-eight procedures were proctored using the traditional on-site method for comparison.

Main Results:

• Teleproctoring demonstrated comparable procedure completion rates to on-site proctoring.
• No significant differences were observed in procedure durations (bronchoscopy, anesthetic, fluoroscopy) between the two groups.
• Safety outcomes, including adverse events and device deficiencies, were similar across both teleproctoring and on-site proctoring groups.

Conclusions:

• Remote teleproctoring serves as a safe and viable alternative to in-person proctoring for bronchoscopy.
• The teleproctoring model offers potential cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and efficiency benefits.
• Future research can explore expanding teleproctoring for remote expert consultation and procedural education.