VR Medical Simulation Training for SOST Advanced Resuscitative Care

Noncompressible torso hemorrhage (NCTH) is the last remaining major cause of preventable death on the battlefield, and often causes death within 30 minutes of wounding. There is currently no standard simulation approach for training the resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) or massive whole blood transfusion protocol (MTP). To ensure readiness across the tactical combat casualty care continuum, the USAF often utilizes physical simulators, such as medical simulation mannequins. These existing simulators already cost up to $1.6M, and the development of new physical simulators for these techniques will be considerably more expensive and time consuming. Everyone participating in physical simulation needs to be present at the same location, which can be a challenge when the units that would be involved on the battlefield are often not routinely stationed together. The 24 Special Operations Wing (SOW) specifically has a national defense-related mission need for Advanced Resuscitative Care (ARC) medical training for its tactical level elite medical forces, including combat controllers, pararescue men, and special operations surgical teams. SimX and the University of Alabama – Birmingham Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (“Team SimX”) have the solution. The SimX Virtual Reality Medical Simulation System (VRMSS) can help solve this problem through adaptation to enable training the key ARC concepts in a team-based setting. SimX has already been in discussions with the 24 SOW. The VRMSS is the first comprehensive, professional-grade, multiplayer, and fully wireless virtual reality (VR) medical simulation training platform and offers fully immersive training at a fraction of the cost of mannequin simulation. SimX’s commercially available solution already supports multiplayer simulation with distributed teams. By adapting the solution to enable training the new ARC techniques, tactics, and protocols (TTPs), the system can meet the mission need for operational medical training around ARC, as well as enable expanded utility of the system from pararescue (PJs) to Special Operations Surgical Team (SOST) teams and beyond.