RAPID: A Virtual Reality simulator to train first responders involved in health care efforts related to the COVID-19 virus outbreak

所有卫生保健工作者可能并不具备应对传染病的必要背景和培训，不同的传染病需要采取不同类型的预防措施。在这种背景下，培训这些应答者处理新型病毒新冠肺炎感染患者变得至关重要。该项目涉及创建一个基于虚拟现实的模拟环境，以支持对包括美国医院、社区和城市的护士在内的急救员的培训，以便更有效地应对最近的新冠肺炎疫情。新冠肺炎病毒的流行给国家治疗患者的能力带来了压倒性的压力；需要接受检测的患者数量继续上升(预计在未来几周和几个月内还会大幅增加)。目前，迫切需要培训这些应答者(护士、医生助理和其他人)，以便以有条不紊、安全和有效的方式进行筛查/检测活动。通过为这类培训创建虚拟现实模拟器，该项目将实现两个目标：(I)增加参与新冠肺炎测试的急救员队伍；(Ii)制定更有效的程序来培训和准备此类急救员。该模拟器的培训模块还将用于向大学生介绍为医疗保健环境设计和建造此类虚拟现实模拟器的过程。随着新冠肺炎患者数量的持续快速增长，国家拥有更多训练有素的急救人员至关重要。这种虚拟现实训练模拟器的创建将满足这一迫切需求。这个创新的模拟器将为护士和其他健康护理助理提供用户友好和有效的培训体验，以执行各种与分流相关的筛查和测试活动。一个包括急救人员、护士和分诊协调员(来自医院合作伙伴)的跨学科研究团队将合作，以一种独特的参与式设计方法来设计和建造这个训练模拟器。在新冠肺炎急救人员和医疗专家的参与下，将创建一个以信息为中心的流程模型，该模型捕获基于分诊的患者互动流程中涉及的各种活动的功能和时间关系，包括筛查、测试和治疗。这种ICPM的创建将为创建模拟环境提供强大和结构化的基础，这些环境将分发到全国各地的医院。将举办在线研讨会(在创建该模拟器之后)，以帮助医院和诊所使用该模拟器。针对医疗和保健专业人员的会议和研讨会论文将重点介绍该培训模拟器的设计和使用。该项目由既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

All health-care workers may not have the necessary background and training to handle contagious diseases, and different contagious diseases need different types of precautions to be taken. In this context, training these responders to handle the novel virus COVID-19 infected patients become paramount. This project involves the creation of a Virtual Reality based simulation environment to support training of first responders including nurses in hospitals, communities, and cities in the US in order to respond more effectively to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID-19 virus pandemic has placed an overwhelming strain on the Nation's ability to treat patients; the number of patients who need to be tested continues to rise (and is expected to increase substantially in the coming weeks and months). Currently, there is an urgent need to train such responders (nurses, physician assistants and others) to perform the screening/testing activities in a methodical, safe and efficient manner. By creating a Virtual Reality simulator for such training, this project will accomplish two objectives: (i) increase the pool of first responders involved in COVID-19 testing; and (ii) develop a more effective process to train and prepare such first responders. The simulator's training modules will also be used to introduce university students to the process of designing and building such Virtual Reality simulators for medical and healthcare contexts.With the number of COVID-19 patients continuing to increase rapidly, it is critical that the Nation have a larger pool of trained first responders. The creation of such a Virtual Reality training simulator will address this urgent need. This innovative simulator will provide a user-friendly and effective training experience for the nurses and other health care assistants to perform various triage-related screening and testing activities. An interdisciplinary team of researchers including first responders, nurses and triage coordinators (from a hospital partner) will collaborate in a unique participatory design-based approach to designing and building this training simulator. With the involvement of COVID-19 first responders and medical specialists, an information centric process model (ICPM) will be created that captures the functional and temporal relationships of various activities involved in the triage-based patient interaction process including screening, testing, and treatment. The creation of such an ICPM will provide a robust and structured foundation to create the simulation environments, which will be distributed to hospitals nationwide. On-line workshops will be held (after creation of this simulator) to help with the use of this simulator by hospitals and clinics. Conference and workshop papers targeting medical and healthcare professionals will be presented to highlight the design and use of this training simulator.This project is co-funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.