Many cardiovascular surgeons are well aware of the importance of non-technical skills but don't know what behaviors with high quality non-technical skills are in the operating room. The Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS) system was developed to be used as a debriefing tool for supervisors to assess the non-technical skills of trainee surgeons and provide feedback immediately after surgery. The NOTSS system has the four categories containing three elements respectively, with "good behavior" and "bad behavior" indicated for each element. The purpose of this column is to introduce the NOTSS and to provide an opportunity to think about how cardiovascular surgeons should behave in the operating room. Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 53(3): U1-U4 (2024)

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether regular visits to community pharmacies to take medications contributes to the prevention of frailty in the elderly and whether it also contributes to the improvement of leftover medications. The patients showed a significant increase in the number of steps taken after interventions, and the frailty index using J-CHS criteria also showed a significant improvement after interventions. In addition, two patients were found to have leftover medications, but improvement was observed after interventions. In the post-intervention patient satisfaction survey, all seven patients responded positively to the following questions: “Effectiveness of medication management,” “Improvement in medication adherence,” “Improvement in physical condition,” “Increase in the number of outings,” “Increase in the amount of exercise,” and “Appropriateness of the number of visits.” On the other hand, two patients responded negatively to the following questions: “Improvement of sleep,” and “Improvement of diet.” As a result, it can be inferred that this initiative is beneficial for the prevention of frailty in elderly patients.