Proximie Live Plus tele-mentoring for trainee endoscopists version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
To evaluate whether use of Proximie Live Plus is acceptable as a tele-mentoring tool by an on-call senior clinician during colonoscopy for newly-certified nurse endoscopists; including assessment and excision of suspect polyps / adenomas, thereby reducing the need for recall of patients for repeat procedures.
IRAS ID
281153
Contact name
Jared Torkington
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff & Vale Health board
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
Summary of Research:
To improve bowel cancer outcomes there is an urgent need to upskill trainees in bowel cancer screening. Tele-mentoring might help achieve this goal.
The aim of this study is to assess if tele-mentoring, using Proximie Live Plus, is an acceptable training adjunct for mentors, trainees, and patients in endoscopy.
This is a feasibility study on consecutive patients undergoing a colonoscopy carried out by trainee using tele-mentoring.
Trainees will undertake all colonoscopy procedures, where patients will be treated as normally. Remote mentors can be located at any location for tele-mentoring and will provide the supervision of the trainee. For safety reasons an onsite mentor will be present in the endoscopy room.Eligible for inclusion is any participant over 18 years of age who is willing and able to give informed consent on a trainee endoscopy list.
Planned sample size consist of 100 patients within a study period from of 1st of october 2020 until 31st of may 2021.
Main outcome will be acceptability of the tele-mentoring system for trainee, mentor and patient. To assess if the tele-mentoring system increases the confidence of the trainee and provided a perception of safety. And to see if the tele-mentoring system is technically feasible.
The study protocol has been reviewed by the Cardiff & Vale health board R&D department.
Summary of Results:
This study evaluated the use of the Proximie® telementoring system as a training tool during colonoscopy and found it to be well-received by trainees, mentors, and patients. Most trainees (80%) considered it a suitable alternative to in-person mentoring and expressed interest in using it in future practice. Both remote and on-site mentors showed confidence in the system’s ability to provide effective supervision, with many indicating they would adopt it in their own practice. While opinions on its usefulness for polyp detection varied—likely due to the limited number of polyp cases—remote mentors generally viewed it more favourably than on-site mentors. Notably, patients responded positively: over 82% were aware of the telementoring during their procedure, and all were open to having it again in the future. The system was safe, with minimal technical issues and no negative impact on clinical outcomes.
However, it also highlights that less experienced trainees still require hands-on support, particularly for technical skills like scope navigation. Therefore, a hybrid model combining telementoring with in-person guidance may be most effective. Future work will explore integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance polyp detection and improve training outcomes. Overall, Proximie® shows strong potential as a scalable training solution, especially for ongoing support post-certification and in settings with limited access to expert endoscopists.REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
20/WA/0283
Date of REC Opinion
20 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion