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. 2023 Feb 16;4(1):e12903.
doi: 10.1002/emp2.12903. eCollection 2023 Feb.

First Responder Virtual Reality Simulator to train and assess emergency personnel for mass casualty response

Nicholas E Kman  1 , Alan Price  2 , Vita Berezina-Blackburn  3 , Jeremy Patterson  3 , Kellen Maicher  4 , David P Way  1 , Jillian McGrath  1 , Ashish R Panchal  1 , Katherine Luu  1 , Alex Oliszewski  3 , Scott Swearingen  3 , Douglas Danforth  5
Affiliations

First Responder Virtual Reality Simulator to train and assess emergency personnel for mass casualty response

Nicholas E Kman et al. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. .

Abstract

As mass casualty incidents continue to escalate in the United States, we must improve frontline responder performance to increase the odds of victim survival. In this article, we describe the First Responder Virtual Reality Simulator, a high-fidelity, fully immersive, automated, programmable virtual reality (VR) simulation designed to train frontline responders to treat and triage victims of mass casualty incidents. First responder trainees don a wireless VR head-mounted display linked to a compatible desktop computer. Trainees see and hear autonomous, interactive victims who are programmed to simulate individuals with injuries consistent with an explosion in an underground space. Armed with a virtual medical kit, responders are tasked with triaging and treating the victims on the scene. The VR environment can be made more challenging by increasing the environmental chaos, adding patients, or increasing the acuity of patient injuries. The VR platform tracks and records their performance as they navigate the disaster scene. Output from the system provides feedback to participants on their performance. Eventually, we hope that the First Responder system will serve both as an effective replacement for expensive conventional training methods as well as a safe and efficient platform for research on current triage protocols.

Keywords: disaster planning; education; educational measurement; emergency medical services; professional competence; transportation of patients; triage.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mixed‐reality image of a first responder trainee treating a virtual patient in the First Responder mass casualty virtual reality environment.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Medical toolkit and tools available to first responder trainees while in the First Responder Virtual Reality Simulator. The sort, assess, lifesaving interventions, treatment, and/or transport algorithm also calls for an autoinjector in the medical kit to be used with chemical exposure victims. The autoinjector was omitted from the kit in this scenario because it was not needed.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Our recreation of the sort, assess, lifesaving treatments mass casualty triage algorithm. (Adapted from Lerner et al. 13 ) LSI, lifesaving intervention.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Display of the first responder's performance score that appears in the head‐mounted display at the conclusion of the virtual reality training or assessment encounter.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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