Surgical Decision-Making Simulation in Virtual Reality for Forward Deployed Damage Control Resuscitation and Surgery

Under the Agile Combat Employment (ACE) model, there is a mission need to conduct operations across a large geographic area and require support from austere resuscitative and surgical care (ARSC) teams capable of providing damage control surgery (DCS) to mitigate both operational and strategic risk. DCS is a key capability provided by ARSC and must be deliberately trained and developed to be successful in the operational environment. The current standard for maintaining medical readiness for damage control surgery is a combination of limited physical mannequin-based simulation, generally requiring travel to a simulation center site, as well as the use of “away” rotations which detach medical warfighters and assign them to civilian training programs to maintain experience levels. SimX proposes to adapt its Virtual Reality Medical Simulation System (VRMSS) to provide the warfighter opportunities for effective training that simulate the psychosocial, environmental, and operational realism required to enable field and expeditionary surgical units to train in realistic settings. This will have significant potential for saving the lives of warfighters while achieving maximal readiness. The research institution partnering with SimX for this effort will be the University of Alabama at Birmingham.