Juxtopia PREPARE E-Learning Intervention for HAZWOPER Training of Fire Fighter/EMTs

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant HAZWOPER emergency response work represents one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States U S where in many cases emergency medical first responders are expected to deliver immediate care to persons suffering from acute traumatic injuries and exposure to hazardous substances e g chemical spills Therefore the HAZWOPER standard devotes very specific and detailed attention to training that represents a major departure from classical emergency medical first responder action Although advanced training technologies ATT have emerged over the past decade ranging from mobile to virtual reality technologies current HAZWOPER ATT are insufficient at tutoring debriefing and quantifiably evaluating hands on skill proficiency while simultaneously both hands are free to practice emergency medical skills The National Institute of Environment Health Sciences NIEHS and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA require realistic HAZWOPER training that measurably develops hands on skill proficiency Additionally students who continually practice hands on clinical skills in simulated environments and with patient simulators significantly improve their hands on skill proficiency For the proposed SBIR Phase I effort Juxtopia will investigate the technical feasibility of solving these problems by developinga personalized mobile and hands free e learning product targeted to improve the hands on skill proficiency among Fire Fighter EMTs The PREPARE e learning product will build upon preliminary data from the Juxtopia r Context Aware Augmented Reality System CAARS platform from which Juxtopia r wearable augmented reality AR Goggles and the SCORM compliant Juxtopia r Virtual Tutor JVT system will be engineered to augment and enhance HAZWOPER training for Fire Fighter EMTs Juxtopia hypothesizes that a HAZWOPER JVT distributed through Juxtopia r AR Goggles will measurably augment instructor training and improve Fire Fighter EMT psychomotor skill proficiency while they practice emergency medical skills in outdoor simulated HAZMAT environments To test the aforementioned hypothesis during the SBIR Phase I effort Juxtopia will answer the following questions How can JVT deliver multi modal tutoring of hands on medical skills How can JVT evaluate hands on medical skills How can JVT continually learn from students How can Juxtopia r AR Goggles facilitate interaction among participants and learners How can Juxtopia r Goggles integrate with HAZWOPER worker head gear How can PREPARE be sold at an affordable price To accomplish this SBIR Phase I effort Juxtopia will Prototype Juxtopia r Goggles Prototype JVT Software and Evaluate the PREPARE System Evaluation of the proposed PREPARE system will be conducted externally by MERAssociates MERA PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The objective of the proposed SBIR Phase I research and development Randamp D effort is to apply preliminary results from Juxtopiaandapos s r andapos CAARS platform to investigate the feasibility of developing and commercializing the PREPARE e learning product to improve psychomotor i e hands on skills during HAZWOPER training of Fire Fighter EMTs in outdoor training environments