Research Article
Digital Recording and Documentation of Endoscopic
Procedures: Do Patients and Doctors Think Alike?
Nadav Willner,
1
Maya Peled-Raz,
2,3
Dan Shteinberg,
4
Michal Shteinberg,
5
Dean Keren,
6
and Tova Rainis
6
1
Internal Ward B, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 47 Golomb St.,
Haifa, Israel
2
Te School of Public Health, International Center for Health, Law and Ethics, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
3
Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
4
Department of General Surgery, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
47 Golomb St., Haifa, Israel
5
Pulmonology Institute and CF Center, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
6
Gastroenterology Unit, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 47 Golomb St.,
Haifa, Israel
Correspondence should be addressed to Nadav Willner; nadav.willner@gmail.com
Received 2 July 2016; Revised 2 November 2016; Accepted 6 November 2016
Academic Editor: Grigorios I. Leontiadis
Copyright © 2016 Nadav Willner et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Aims and Methods. Conducting a survey study of a large number of patients and gastroenterologists aimed at identifying relevant
predictors of interest in digital recording and documentation (DRD) of endoscopic procedures. Outpatients presenting to the
endoscopy unit at our institution for an endoscopy examination were anonymously surveyed, regarding their views and opinions
of a possible recording of the procedure. A parallel survey for gastroenterologists was conducted. Results. 417 patients and 62
gastroenterologists participated in two parallel surveys regarding DRD of endoscopic procedures. 66.4% of the patients expressed
interest in digital documentation of their endoscopic procedure, with 90.5% of them requesting a copy. 43.6% of the physicians
supported digital recording while 27.4% opposed it, with 48.4% opposing to making a copy of the recording available to the patient.
No sociodemographic or background factors predicted patient’s interest in DRD. 66% of the physicians reported having recording
facilities in their institutions, but only 43.6% of them stated performing recording. Having institutional guidelines for DRD was
found to be the only signifcant predictor for routine recording. Conclusions. Our study exposes patients’ positive views of digital
recording and documentation of endoscopic procedures. In contrast, physicians appear to be much more reluctant towards DRD
and are centrally motivated by legal concerns when opposing DRD, as well as when supporting it.
1. Introduction
Te feld of systematic digital recording and documentation
(DRD) of endoscopic procedures is still in its infancy. DRD
refers not only to the digital recording of the procedure itself
but also to standardized assimilation of that digital informa-
tion into the patient’s medical record (i.e., electronic medical
record, EMR). In some medical centers it is common practice
to archive digital photos of the procedure, in a manner that
may be obtained by the patient himself, especially for anatom-
ical landmarks, future surgical plan, or abnormal fndings.
Nevertheless, there are no ofcial international guidelines.
A PubMed search for the following keywords, “video
recording,” “endoscopy,” or “digital records,” yields only few
relevant studies, most of them addressing the issue mainly
from the aspect of promoting quality indicators. Videotaping
of the cecum is more convincing and efective than still
photographs at confrming cecal intubation [1]. An additional
study, aiming to calculate the accuracy of two photographs in
confrming a complete colonoscopy, found a very low sensi-
tivity and specifcity, the gold standard for proved completed
colonoscopy being video documentation [2]. Rex et al. con-
ducted a small pilot study, which recorded routine colono-
scopies by seven colonoscopists, with and without their
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Volume 2016, Article ID 2493470, 7 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2493470