Improved Casualty Depiction System for Simulated Mass Casualty Exercises

Area of Science:

• Military Medicine
• Medical Simulation
• Disaster Preparedness

Background:

• Assessing military medical teams' response to mass casualty (MASCAL) events is crucial for future conflicts.
• Existing MASCAL exercises utilize simulated patients with limited medical training, impacting assessment fidelity.
• The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) has a history of evaluating military providers via large-scale simulations like Bushmaster.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a comprehensive casualty depiction system to improve the fidelity of MASCAL exercises.
• To enhance the realism of simulated patient portrayals in military medical training scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Collaborated with military medical experts to create a casualty depiction system with structured casualty cards and time-based illness scripts.
• Casualty cards incorporated diverse elements: disease non-battle injuries, trauma, shared events, combat stress, and unit considerations.
• Piloted the system during Operation Bushmaster at USUHS, evaluating clinical faculty feedback on fidelity and role-player feasibility.

Main Results:

• Developed and piloted 300 casualty cards linked to 49 illness scripts.
• 170 military members with limited medical training served as role-players.
• 96% of clinical faculty agreed the system improved patient presentation realism; 83% of role-players found it easy to understand.

Conclusions:

• The enhanced casualty depiction system is a feasible method for increasing MASCAL exercise fidelity.
• The system has been disseminated globally to aid other military medical units in their MASCAL preparedness.
• This advancement facilitates future multisite evaluations of casualty depiction systems in military medical training.