British journal of anaesthesia
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Non-technical skills are critical for good anaesthetic practice but are not addressed explicitly in normal training. Realization of the need to train and assess these skills is growing, but these activities must be based on properly developed skills frameworks and validated measurement tools. A prototype behavioural marker system was developed using human factors research techniques. The aim of this study was to conduct an experimental evaluation to establish its basic psychometric properties and usability. ⋯ The findings of the evaluation indicated that the ANTS system has a satisfactory level of validity, reliability and usability in an experimental setting, provided users receive adequate training. It is now ready to be tested in real training environments, so that full guidelines can be developed for its integration into the anaesthetic curriculum.