Charles River Analytics Inc., developer of intelligent systems solutions, announces its growing business providing healthcare support and training with the System for Trauma Assessment Training, or STAT. The computer and tablet-based training system presents a virtual patient in multiple trauma scenarios for efficient and effective learning, rehearsal, and assessment. The 27-month, follow-on contract awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory is valued at $749,000.
As the first step in saving the lives of wounded Warfighters, training for primary and secondary trauma assessment is vital to DoD medical personnel. Current approaches include both classroom instruction and high-fidelity training, which can be improved. Classroom instruction alone does not prepare trainees completely for the field. High-fidelity training, which includes mock cases, requires high teacher-to-student ratios and expensive manikins, and is limited by the number of scenarios per session scheduling difficulties. To augment these approaches, regular opportunities for repeated practice on multiple scenarios is necessary for trainees to “proceduralize” their skills.
In the STAT effort, Charles River Analytics is teaming with Professor Frank Ritter of the Pennsylvania State University to address this need for frequent, low-cost training by creating synthetic task environments that bridge this critical gap between classroom instruction and costly live simulation events. By providing medical personnel with regular rehearsal of the critical decision-making and cognitive skill for trauma assessment, STAT will improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of training, while reducing costs. STAT also includes a scenario-editor, which enables easy construction of different clinical scenarios to enable practice on difficult cases that are not often encountered. The ability to construct diverse classes of scenarios means that in addition to educating military and government personnel, STAT-based training can benefit civilian hospitals and first responders.
STAT presents a virtual patient with simulated injuries and physiology; the trainee can interact with the patient by performing various interventions or performing tests to assess for difficult-to-observe symptoms. All this is conducted under real time pressure, so the user can practice critical high-stakes decision-making and cognitive skills necessary in trauma assessment.
STAT also provides a highly customizable user interface, shown in the image below, so that patient models and interaction tools can be tailored to represent a near infinite spectrum of scenarios.
A virtual patient presented in STAT’s user interface
Charles River has recently developed a number of tools to provide healthcare support and training, including:
- TMT – A tourniquet master training system
- ADVISOR – a system for in-theater vestibular function assessment
- MOVER – a system to enhance outpatient rehabilitation with engaging video games and virtual coaches
- RELAX – A mobile-technology-enabled anger management tool
Learn more about our healthcare support and training capabilities.
This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under Contract No. FA8650-16-C-6680. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Air Force.
