Reliability of the Dundee Endoscopic Psychomotor Tester (DEPT) for dominant hand performance.
BACKGROUND
The Dundee Endoscopic Psychomotor Tester (DEPT) was developed as a means of obtaining an objective assessment of endoscopic performance using a single hand. This paper evaluates the reliability of the system.


METHODS
Twenty medical students were tested on the DEPT for four runs using the dominant hand. Test-retest reproducibility and coefficient alpha to measure the internal consistency were used as indexes of the reliability of the DEPT system.


RESULTS
A positive correlation was found between different runs in all outcome measures of the DEPT. Coefficient a was > 0.7 for all parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
DEPT provides a reliable method for the objective assessment of single-handed endoscopic performance in terms of aiming and force exerted on the target plate.
Francis
N K
NK
Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology, Surgical Skills Unit, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 9SY, Scotland, UK.
Hanna
G B
GB
Cuschieri
A
A
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000592:standards*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical