- Training for complex incidents requires significant setup and management resources for large collective events to simulate response and medical care. A simulated Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) training can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mid-sized event.
- A large organization or city can spend millions on a few events 1 to 2 times per year. With funding constraints for better training and high-op tempo for teams, it can be overwhelming to develop effective training strategies. You may need to postpone or even cancel training events.
- Now with the ongoing pandemic, you shouldn’t have to lower training standards critical to ensure your emergency responders are confident and mission-ready to execute mass casualty triage systems.
Introducing Virtual Reality Training for Mass Casualty Triage
Provide Mass Casualty Triage Training Anywhere, Anytime and with Anyone at a Fraction of the Cost.
Immersive Rapid Treatment Experience
Mass casualty incident triage through a virtual reality solution which provides an immersive experience to trainees, creating an intense and realistic experience. This virtual reality solution helps agencies gain expertise through a variety of scenarios that most closely mimic real-life emergencies covering severe injuries and lifesaving interventions in the field and hospital emerg med simulations.
Cadets and leaders can now have multiple simulations where they can role play as patient care providers who are responsible for assessing the condition of participating personnel and patients using the START method once inside triage pods which is equipped with the latest virtual reality technology to help deliver more accurate feedback on their performance as compared to using traditional methods of training. Apart from being easier and less expensive than live simulations, this solution can have different “real life” situations such as natural or man-made disasters which enables extensive role play between trainers, participants and agencies even a hospital.
TRADITIONAL START TRIAGE TRAINING VS ATS VIRTUAL REALITY MCI TRAINING
Setup of MCI scenarios and victims is time consuming
START Triage sessions are not repeatable
There are no visible signs of trauma or wounds
Dummies cannot speak, move, interact or emote
Realistic environments are difficult to set up
There is no way to track performance metrics
- No setup time required! MCI Scenarios are auto-generated
- Train for START anywhere, anytime, as many times as you need
- A wide range of realistic signs of trauma
Full range of emotions and realistic animations- Realistic and immersive 360º crash scene
- Advanced analytics to evaluate every task
NO MORE LIFELESS INFLATABLE DUMMIES!
Hundreds of patient profiles to challenge you
MAXIMIZE PERFORMANCE
Meet the ATS HERO Platform
- Comprehensive performance analytics
- Track the speed and accuracy of individual tasks
View mistagging and misdiagnosis issues
Make sure trainees follow the START triage protocol
Monitor training completion and send reminders to teams- Assign, track, and monitor via computer, tablet or phone
The HERO Platform Makes Managing Your Teams A Snap
Don’t just take our word for it. You can hear straight from first responders participating in the development of a virtual and augmented reality training for EMTs in triaging techniques for mass-casualties. This training was jointly developed through the collaboration between the City of Austin/Travis County EMS, Texas State University and Augmented Training Systems, Inc. This was our third development through US Ignite – Smart Gigabit Communities program. You can learn more about our AMBUS virtual reality training also part of this collaboration.
Bring Disaster Into The Classroom
VR can be defined as follows: “a computer generated simulation of a real or imaginary environment in which people participate via sensory input such as sight and sound.” It takes the user into a different perceptual domain, that is made to feel real, and takes advantage of the human perceptual system’s natural tendency to fill in gaps from what it sees or hears. VR simulators can bring a disaster into the classroom and replicate a mass casualty incident (MCI) setting with high degree of fidelity, presenting realistic scenarios for train-the-trainer sessions.
“This is the coolest
thing I’ve ever done!”
Travis County EMT Trainee
Improve Response Efficiency and Increase ROI
The agency responsible for training could simply coordinate an event by sending an invitation email or notification to all cadets who have registered at least 24 hours prior to their scheduled start time. The agency heads can monitor the progress of cadets through performance data which can be accessed using any smart devices – anytime/anywhere. This provides the opportunity to improve response efficiency as well as optimize on ROI and minimize costs.
TRADITIONAL
MCI TRAINING
As much as
$300/year
per trainee
Estimated
Realistic, immersive experience- Trackable progress and analytics
- Repeatable, randomized trainings
ATS HERO
MCI TRAINING
As low as
$45/year
per trainee
Unlimited Access (300 users and under=$60)
Realistic, immersive experience- Trackable progress and analytics
- Repeatable, randomized trainings
Simple To Facilitate and Manage
The following information when sent to the cadets ahead of time for a mass casualty triage training would help them familiarize themselves with what they have to do and how it’s going to work.
– The agency, date and time of your event
– They will be given a brief introduction on how the virtual reality mass casualty incident triage simulation works
– Cadets will be provided PPE (personal protective equipment) before entering the staging area where triage pods are located.
What happens next is that once you are inside a pod, you receive instructions on what you need to do as a response team member when faced with patients in real life situations with those that need to be treated immediately. For example: “You may come across victims who are responsive or unresponsive”, “Victims wearing reflective clothing indicating that they are first responders”, “Victims who are actively bleeding or have been administered with anti-coagulants” etc. The trainees will then be provided with virtual reality equipment such as headsets and hand controllers.
Expanding Virtual Library of Mass Casualty Triage System
Eventually, the library will enable trainees to virtually walk through different scenarios and disaster triage systems such as the SALT triage system occurring during a sporting event to one caused by an active shooter at a school campus or terrorists on board an airliner that crash landed into a forested area. This can be expanded to include any hazard affected community and adhere to potentially any proposed national guideline.
This model may also be applicable toward other fields/industries such as healthcare, military medicine or even academia where individuals are required to provide immediate treatment of first aid or disaster triage.
As a future enhancement to this solution, one could potentially record biometrics (heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure) and associate them with physiological response based on the cadets’ performance during sessions with an advanced triage algorithm. The agency can then review analysis from the recorded data which will assist in providing feedback to cadets.
Increase Training Opportunities
The cadets will have the opportunity to interact with virtual patients who respond differently when treated depending on their physical condition to help them determine which patients require immediate first aid treatment (i.e., CPR) vs those with minor injuries that can wait until EMS arrives on site (“triage”). Cadets learn by doing and are given immediate feedback on their performance when applying emergency medicine procedures as compared to using traditional methods.
Apart from being easier and less expensive than live simulations, this solution can have different “real life” situations to apply disaster medicine methods whether natural or man-made disasters. This is expected to transform the level of medical care through extensive role play between trainers and participants.
This is a valuable tool for emergency response agencies that allows them to reduce time spent on training, increase the number of trainees that can be trained in one session, eliminate travel expenses incurred during traditional training scenarios and create opportunities for cadets to receive mass casualty incident triage simulation training in unfamiliar environments.