Biobehavioral sensing for automated non-technical skills assessments
Nontechnical skills (NTS) include cognitive and interpersonal (eg, teamwork) skills1; they are linked to patient outcomes in surgery.2,3 Currently, NTS assessment in surgery relies on behavior ratings that are subjective, potentially biasing assessments, and requires trained raters, a limited resource. This study demonstrates a sensing-based system for objectively measuring intraoperative NTS. We hypothesized that objective, sensor-derived communication and proximity metrics are associated with NTS scores assessed with existing tools and can accurately predict exemplar NTS scores that promote patient safety and teamwork.
Objective Nontechnical Skills Measurement Using Sensor-based Behavior Metrics in Surgical Teams
NTS are cognitive and social skills that impact operative performance and patient outcomes. Current methods for NTS assessment in surgery rely on observation-based tools to rate intraoperative behavior. These tools are resource intensive (e.g., time for observation or manual labeling) to perform; therefore, more efficient approaches are needed.
