User-Centered Evaluation of an AR Virtual Triage Tag: Responder Perceptions and Performance with Virtual and 'Real' Patient Actors

Rural emergency responders, serving ∼49 million people, are under-experienced and under-trained to handle mass casualty incidents (MCIs). Our prior work has proposed AR tools to facilitate novice emergency responders in MCI triage, concluding with an introductory lab study of the AR tool's usability with actual emergency responders. Given the high risk and consequential nature of MCI triage, 1) sterile, controlled lab settings are not sufficient in isolation to evaluate the actual scalability of these AR tools, and simultaneously, 2) it is impossible to jump straight to actual field evaluation without further proof of concept. Thus, this work offers additional AR tool evaluation with emergency responders through two contextually embedded simulations-one with virtual patients and one with 'real' patient actors situated in a physical space. This paper describes the two simulations created via a partnership with a national training facility for MCI triage, Disaster City at Texas A&M Engineering's Extension Service (TEEX). This paper discusses the AR tool's usability in progressively embedded real context via subjective semi-structured interviews and objective performance measures, and finally explores the effectiveness of the simulations themselves for evaluative purposes.