Do surgeon non-technical skills correlate with teamwork-related outcomes during robot-assisted surgery?

Introduction To evaluate the impact of non-technical skills (NTS) on team performance, workload and clinical outcomes. Methods The operating room (OR) environment of 20 robot-assisted radical prostatectomies performed by three different surgeons was recorded. Trained observers assessed NTS utilising the Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS) questionnaire. Associations between NOTSS scores, teamwork attributes (anticipation and inconveniences), workload (measured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX)) and clinical outcomes (operative time, blood loss and surgical complexity) were determined using logistic regression and Pearson correlation. Results 1780 requests were observed, 703 (39%) were non-verbal. Utilisation of non-verbal requests differed significantly among surgeons (26%, 36% and 44%, p Conclusion NTS in the OR were associated with team efficiency, fewer surgical flow disruptions and an improved self-perceived performance.