Mixed Reality For Female Soldier Tactical Combat Casualty Care (MRFS-TCCC)

The U.S. Army currently lacks a solution for female manikins that uses augmented reality technology to facilitate Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC or TC3) training. Female Soldiers experience a significant survivability gap compared to male soldiers. This is due, in part, to a lack of anatomically correct female manikins in the Casualty Care training. The Army currently trains Soldiers using male manikins. It needs a technology that improves training to better care for Soldiers, specifically female Soldiers, on the battlefield and saves lives at the point of injury. Training using realistic female anatomy can help reduce hesitation to provide treatment for battlefield injuries and reduce female deaths. The main technical objective for this Phase I SBIR is to develop, demonstrate, and deliver solutions for enhanced female combat trauma mixed reality (MR) training that can work with or without a physical manikin and incorporates an open architecture while utilizing high-fidelity simulations for combat trauma-related scenarios.We propose a modular and open system solution allowing other companies/solution providers or Army stakeholders to provide solution sets. We will provide a realistic female anatomy model that initially uses our 3D database and can be further refined and augmented using open-source clinical 3D models and other DICOM data sets optimized to run in Unity or Unreal 3D engine. We are currently using Unreal Engine 5’s MetaHuman Creator, which could have a fantastic possible application for this SBIR. We propose extending this capability to a Male model later in Phase II and beyond. We will focus on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), which includes care under the fire and tactical field care stage of TCCC, with the plan to add prolonged casualty care in Phase II. This female patient simulator/manikin will be a part-task trainer. MRFS must provide training feedback, such as guided practice and after-action reviews. The system will allow the trainee to know (without the instructor presenter) what they have done right or wrong and what they need to do to improve. We will focus on Advanced Modular Manikin Phase II Standards, such as Modular Healthcare Simulation and Education System (MoHSES). We will research and seek out the right partner to help build the female manikin that aligns with these Advanced Modular Manikin™ (AMM™) standards since this is one of the state-of-the-art in medical simulation-based training.