Exploring patient opinions of laparoscopic surgical video analysis and operating theatre technology

Use of video is an important educational tool for surgical learning and reflective practice. Patients are important stakeholders in considering digital education using surgical video. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore patients' opinions on operating theater technology, including recording, storing, analyzing, and annotating laparoscopic surgical video for surgical digital technology research.

This qualitative study design used reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of focus group data. RTA is an analytical method to develop and interpret patterns in a dataset by a systematic coding. The focus group considered patient perceived benefits and concerns about recording, analyzing, and annotating laparoscopic surgical video.

In November 2019, an in-patient focus group was undertaken together with demonstration of Touch Surgery (Digital Technologies, Medtronic).

Experienced patients who had undergone an oncological laparoscopic colorectal resection were invited to participate. Six patients (5 male, 1 female), a next of kin and Bowel Cancer UK charity representative.

The following themes were developed using RTA: support of recording laparoscopic surgical video, patient expectation, consent, patients access to video, surgeons influencing data, data concerns, and sharing data with third parties.

Participants perceive educational and clinical merit in surgical digital technology research and are willing to contribute by sharing their deidentified laparoscopic surgical video. There are some concerns about surgeon biases, privacy of identifiable data, and informed consent. Video capture technology in the operating theater may mitigate some of these concerns. However, it is incumbent on clinical and research teams to maintain patient trust by, managing data and relationships safely, and consulting patients in study design.