Mixed Reality–To Better Prepare Medical First Responders for Mass-Casualty Incident Response

Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 2017

The UK Defence Medical Service's Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (PHEC) capability includes rapid-deployment Medical Emergency Response Teams (MERTs) comprising tri-service trauma consultants, paramedics and specialised nurses, all of whom are qualified to administer emergency care under extreme conditions to improve the survival prospects of combat casualties. The pre-deployment training of MERT personnel is designed to foster individual knowledge, skills and abilities in PHEC and in small team performance and cohesion in 'mission-specific' contexts. Until now, the provision of airborne pre-deployment MERT training had been dependent on either the availability of an operational aircraft (eg, the CH-47 Chinook helicopter) or access to one of only two ground-based facsimiles of the Chinook's rear cargo/passenger cabin. Although MERT training has high priority, there will always be competition with other military taskings for access to helicopter assets (and for other plat...

2002

2009

The perception and awareness of the possibilities of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear ("CBRN") emergencies is constantly growing. These dangers are in most cases not directly detectable by human senses and as a consequence no inborn or trained refle- xes of reaction exist. One has to explicitly design and validate(!) special procedures (’Best Practices’) to detect and to counter such dangers. These Best Practices have to be specifi- cally trained, especially under near-realistic yet safe conditions. Modern technology allows to simulate actual situations (including the use of simulated tools) and the consequences of various courses of action in a realistic way. The overall goal of the SimRad.NCB project is the development and utilization of trai- ning tools for First Responders for all aspects of an intervention in emergency situations, including technical procedures, management, team coordination, etc. By taking a process view these interventions can be diss...

Academic Emergency Medicine, 2008

Virtual reality (VR) environments offer potential advantages over traditional paper methods, manikin simulation, and live drills for mass casualty training and assessment. The authors measured the acquisition of triage skills by novice learners after exposing them to three sequential scenarios (A, B, and C) of five simulated patients each in a fully immersed three-dimensional VR environment. The hypothesis was that learners would improve in speed, accuracy, and self-efficacy. Twenty-four medical students were taught principles of mass casualty triage using three short podcasts, followed by an immersive VR exercise in which learners donned a head-mounted display (HMD) and three motion tracking sensors, one for their head and one for each hand. They used a gesture-based command system to interact with multiple VR casualties. For triage score, one point was awarded for each correctly identified main problem, required intervention, and triage category. For intervention score, one point was awarded for each correct VR intervention. Scores were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each student. Before and after surveys were used to measure self-efficacy and reaction to the training. Four students were excluded from analysis due to participation in a recent triage research program. Results from 20 students were analyzed. Triage scores and intervention scores improved significantly during Scenario B (p < 0.001). Time to complete each scenario decreased significantly from A (8:10 minutes) to B (5:14 minutes; p < 0.001) and from B to C (3:58 minutes; p < 0.001). Self-efficacy improved significantly in the areas of prioritizing treatment, prioritizing resources, identifying high-risk patients, and beliefs about learning to be an effective first responder. Novice learners demonstrated improved triage and intervention scores, speed, and self-efficacy during an iterative, fully immersed VR triage experience.

Presence: Vol. 9, No. 6

This paper presents the design and implementation of a distributed virtual reality (VR) platform that was developed to support the training of multiple users who must perform complex tasks in which situation assessment and critical thinking are the primary components of success. The system is fully immersive and multimodal, and users are represented as tracked, full-body figures. The system supports the manipulation of virtual objects, allowing users to act upon the environment in a natural manner. The underlying intelligent simulation component creates an interactive, responsive world in which the consequences of such actions are presented within a realistic, time-critical scenario. The focus of this work has been on the training of medical emergency-response personnel. BioSimMER, an application of the system to training first responders to an act of bio-terrorism, has been implemented and is presented throughout the paper as a concrete example of how the underlying platform architecture supports complex training tasks. Finally, a preliminary field study was performed at the Texas Engineering Extension Service Fire Protection Training Division. The study focused on individual, rather than team, interaction with the system and was designed to gauge user acceptance of VR as a training tool. The results of this study are presented.

education and …, 2003

… Conference on System Sciences-Volume 5 …, 2000

Research Square (Research Square), 2024

Academic Emergency Medicine, 2008

Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

Background Adequate training and preparation of medical first responders (MFRs) are essential for an optimal performance in highly demanding situations like disasters (e.g., mass accidents, natural catastrophes). The training needs to be as effective as possible, because precise and effective behavior of MFRs under stress is central for ensuring patients’ survival and recovery. This systematic review offers an overview of scientifically evaluated training methods used to prepare MFRs for disasters. It identifies different effectiveness indicators and provides an additional analysis of how and to what extent the innovative training technologies virtual (VR) and mixed reality (MR) are included in disaster training research. Methods The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines and focused specifically on (quasi-)experimental studies published between January 2010 and September 2021. The literature search was conducted via Web of Science and PubMed and led to t...