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

并非所有保健工作者都具备处理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。在这种情况下，培训这些反应人员处理新型病毒COVID-19感染的患者变得至关重要。该项目涉及创建一个基于虚拟现实的模拟环境，以支持美国医院、社区和城市的急救人员（包括护士）的培训，以便更有效地应对最近的COVID-19疫情。COVID-19病毒大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人数继续增加（预计在未来几周和几个月内将大幅增加）。目前，迫切需要培训这样的响应者（护士、医师助理和其他人）以有条不紊、安全和有效的方式执行筛查/测试活动。通过为此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COVID-19测试的第一响应者的人数;以及（ii）开发更有效的流程来培训和准备这些第一响应者。模拟器的培训模块还将用于向大学生介绍设计和构建医疗保健环境中的虚拟现实模拟器的过程。随着COVID-19患者数量持续快速增加，国家拥有更大的训练有素的急救人员库至关重要。 创建这样一个虚拟现实训练模拟器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一个用户友好和有效的培训经验，以执行各种与分流相关的筛选和测试活动。一个由研究人员组成的跨学科团队，包括急救人员、护士和分诊协调员（来自医院合作伙伴），将以独特的参与式设计方法进行合作，设计和构建这个培训模拟器。在COVID-19第一反应者和医学专家的参与下，将创建一个信息中心流程模型（ICPM），该模型将捕捉基于分诊的患者交互过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。创建这样一个国际预防和管理中心将为创建模拟环境提供一个强有力的结构化基础，模拟环境将分发给全国各地的医院。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。会议和研讨会的论文将针对医疗和保健专业人士提出，以突出这个培训模拟器的设计和使用。这个项目是共同资助的既定计划，以刺激竞争力的研究（EPSCoR）。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

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.