REMOTE Study: Feasibility and Effectiveness of Telemedicine-based Echocardiography Mentoring in Intensive Care

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and user experiences of real-time remote mentoring for echocardiography in intensive care settings using the Remote Education, Augmented Communication, Training and Supervision (REACTS) telemedicine platform. Design: Single center, mixed-methods feasibility study with convergent parallel design. Setting: Adult intensive care unit at Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Participants: Fifteen practitioners (12 novices, 3 accredited) participated between June 2020 and June 2021. Interventions: Implementation of the REACTS platform for remote echocardiography mentoring with the Philips Lumify handheld ultrasound device. Measurements and Main Results: Quantitative analysis demonstrated consistently high mean image quality scores (1.57-2.00/2.00) and mean report accuracy (1.86-2.00/2.00) across all echocardiographic views. All planned sessions were successfully completed with minimal connectivity interruptions. The teaching effectiveness evaluation consistently yielded high mean scores (5.87-6.00/6.00). Thematic analysis revealed four key themes: “accessibility of expertise,” “educational value,” “technical considerations,” and “implementation challenges.” Conclusions: Real-time remote mentoring for critical care echocardiography is technically feasible and educationally valuable in the intensive care setting. Although implementation challenges exist, particularly regarding technical infrastructure and scheduling, these appear surmountable with appropriate planning. Remote mentoring shows promise as a potential strategy to address current disparities in echocardiography training and supervision.<p></p>