Abstract
Colonoscopy is the gold standard method for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer and the identification of precancerous polyps. Unfortunately, there is not yet a metric (formally recommended by consensus guidelines) for the quantification of colonoscopy quality. Though, there are established quality indicators such as the bowel preparation and the withdrawal time; fast withdrawal time is highly correlated with adenoma detection rate. Current metric tools for these parameters are not objective. This limitation leads to the formalization of the present study, which focuses on the development of a real-time, novel colonoscopy evaluation system and the assessment of its clinical efficacy. The proposed tool consists of an embedded system that can automatically measure: a) the quantity of stool and waste matter existing within the patient during a colonoscopy procedure; b) withdrawal velocity; c) image clarity; and d) determination of colonoscope direction and traveling distance. The proposed method can be used to create practice standards for colonoscopy training, or as part of medical skill evaluation.
