Annette L. Sobel

Design and Implementation of a Virtual Reality System and Its Application to Training Medical First Responders

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.

A Virtual Reality Patient Simulation System for Teaching Emergency Response Skills to U.S. Navy Medical Providers

Rapid and effective medical intervention in response to civil and military-related disasters is crucial for saving lives and limiting long-term disability. Inexperienced providers may suffer in performance when faced with limited supplies and the demands of stabilizing casualties not generally encountered in the comparatively resource-rich hospital setting. Head trauma and multiple injury cases are particularly complex to diagnose and treat, requiring the integration and processing of complex multimodal data. In this project, collaborators adapted and merged existing technologies to produce a flexible, modular patient simulation system with both three-dimensional virtual reality and two-dimensional flat screen user interfaces for teaching cognitive assessment and treatment skills. This experiential, problem-based training approach engages the user in a stress-filled, high fidelity world, providing multiple learning opportunities within a compressed period of time and without risk. The system simulates both the dynamic state of the patient and the results of user intervention, enabling trainees to watch the virtual patient deteriorate or stabilize as a result of their decision-making speed and accuracy. Systems can be deployed to the field enabling trainees to practice repeatedly until their skills are mastered and to maintain those skills once acquired. This paper describes the technologies and the process used to develop the trainers, the clinical algorithms, and the incorporation of teaching points. We also characterize aspects of the actual simulation exercise through the lens of the trainee.

MediSim: a prototype VR system for training medical first responders

This paper presents a prototype virtual reality (VR) system for training medical first responders. The initial application is to battlefield medicine and focuses on the training of medical corpsmen and other front-line personnel who might be called upon to provide emergency triage on the battlefield. The system is built upon Sandias multi-user, distributed VR platform and provides an interactive, immersive simulation capability. The user is represented by an Avatar and is able to manipulate his virtual instruments and carry out medical procedures. A dynamic casualty simulation provides realistic cues to the patients condition (e.g. changing blood pressure and pulse) and responds to the actions of the trainee (e.g. a change in the color of a patients skin may result from a check of the capillary refill rate). The current casualty simulation is of an injury resulting in a tension pneumothorax. This casualty model was developed by the University of Pennsylvania and integrated into the Sandia MediSim system.

Biological Warfare Training: Infectious Disease Outbreak Differentiation Criteriaa

Abstract: The threat of biological terrorism and warfare may increase as the availability of weaponizable agents increase, the relative production costs of these agents decrease, and, most importantly, there exist terrorist groups willing to use them. Therefore, an important consideration during the current emphasis of heightened surveillance for emerging infectious diseases is the capability to differentiate between natural and intentional outbreaks. Certain attributes of a disease outbreak, while perhaps not pathognomic for a biological attack when considered singly, may in combination with other attributes provide convincing evidence for intentional causation. These potentially differentiating criteria include proportion of combatants at risk, temporal patterns of illness onset, number of cases, clinical presentation, strain/variant, economic impact, geographic location, morbidity/mortality, antimicrobial resistance patterns, seasonal distribution, zoonotic potential, residual infectivity/toxicity, prevention/therapeutic potential, route of exposure, weather/climate conditions, incubation period, and concurrence with belligerent activities of potential adversaries.

Educating the Next Generation to Respond to a Bioterrorism Event

Seamless, effective disaster management, including early warning, preparation, response, mitigation, and recovery, is necessary for resilient communities. As the scale and complexity of disasters increase, so do the information management, decision-making, and leadership challenges. This paper focuses on educating students through the application of systems engineering principles in a simulated bioterrorism event. We describe a workshop that included a tabletop scenario exercise to familiarize a mix of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students with systems analysis and decision making during real-world events. Bridging the data and information management and translation-to-knowledge functions through triage of information to create actionable information arguably represents the most critical and vulnerable link in the information fusion process. We conclude the paper with a description of the methodology used to evaluate the learning approach.

The role of information superiority in the global war on terrorism

Organizational agility, thoughtful purpose in information/intelligence-sharing and collaboration, speed of action and decision-making are critical elements to winning the War on Terrorism. These elements define the guidance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, United States Marine Corps. The role of each element should be considered in the knowledge discovery process and a focused, yet adaptive, approach should be adopted in the effort toward terrorist/extremist early cueing, identification, and warning.

Application of HTS technology to cardiac dysrhythmia detection

Discusses the conceptual design considerations and challenges for development of a contactless, mobile, single channel biomagnetic sensor system based on high-temperature superconductor (HTS) superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and employing the three-SQUID gradiometer concept. Operating in magnetically unshielded environments, as are encountered in many medical scenarios, this instrument class would monitor cardiac electrical activity with minimal patient preparation and intrusiveness, and would notionally be coupled with a clinically adaptive human-system interface.<<ETX>>