Lessons from surgery and anaesthesia: evaluation of non-technical skills in interventional radiology

In the medical profession, surgery and anaesthesia are leading the way in identifying human errors that negatively affect patient safety. Evidence suggests that the implementation of non-technical skills assessments reduces such errors. Interventional Radiology is a procedural based speciality and therefore may also benefit from formal assessment of non-technical skills. This literature review supports the use of standardised assessment tools used in surgery and anaesthesia. Using the Downing framework of internal validity, the tools demonstrated good internal consistency but a spectrum of inter-rater variability, which can be partially improved with training. At present, a formal Interventional Radiology non-technical skills assessment tool is probably not suitable to be a stand-alone ‘high stakes’ assessment, but may be a useful adjunct to the existing array of workplace-based assessments.