An apparatus (10) provides remote assistance to a local operator of a medical imaging device (2) disposed in a medical imaging device bay (3) via a communication link (14) from a remote location (4) that is remote from the medical imaging device bay to the medical imaging device bay. The apparatus includes a workstation (12) disposed at the remote location including at least one workstation display (24). At least one electronic processor (20) is programmed to, over the course of a medical imaging examination performed using the medical imaging device: extract successive image frames from video (17) or screen sharing (18) of a controller display (24′) of the medical imaging device; screen-scrape information related to the medical imaging examination from the successive image frames over the course of the medical imaging examination; maintain status information on the medical imaging examination at least in part using the screen-scraped information; and output an alert (30) perceptible at the remote location when the status information on the medical imaging examination satisfies an alert criterion.