Medical Emergency Team Tutored Learning Environment

The U.S. military and civil society both face the increasing prospect that enemies will employ horrific weapons to cause mass casualties. Any effective response to large-scale medical emergencies will hinge on the decision-making and teamwork of medical and emergency professionals, which in turn is tied to the quality of the training those professionals have received. However, beyond relatively low frequency live exercises, this community—including the military medical community—has little effective training for the professional judgement and coordination required in such circumstances. Deployable computer-based simulations with embedded intelligent tutors can address this gap in emergency preparedness. In this Phase II project, Stottler Henke will work with experts on medical emergency response to combine, adapt, and extend selected simulation and Intelligent Tutoring System technologies to develop and prove feasibility for a Medical Emergency Team Tutored Learning Environment (METTLE). METTLE will simulate large-scale medical emergencies—e.g. Chemical, Biological, or Radiological incidents—and tutor individual professionals on the decisions and team interactions appropriate to their roles. To enable easy deployment, standalone operation, and focus on the individual student, METTLE will simulate other team members, team dialogs, and necessary supporting tools. To emphasize professional-level decision-making, METTLE will exploit Socratic-style dialogs with the tutor.