1. Where Virtual Hits Reality Developing Disaster Management Mastery in Virtual Reality Health STAT August 1 st, 2013 Victor H. Cid, NLM SIS DIMRC, NIH, HHS

2. Hospital Incident Management The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) Hierarchical system – not tied to org. hierarchy Comes to life during an emergency Specific roles, each with well-defined tasks Anybody in the organization can play any role

3. BHEPP Enhancing disaster resiliency of ◦ Suburban Hospital - John Hopkins Medicine ◦ NIH Clinical Center ◦ Walter Reed National Military Medical Center NLM enlisted for R&D work Eleven R&D projects

4. Why NLM? Leading bioinformatics research organization NLM has resources and vast experience designing, conducting Health IT research Managing disasters is managing information and that’s what libraries do NLM is right around the corner…

5. Traditional HICS Training Mandatory for Joint Commission accreditation Methods vary, but include: ◦ Individual study, ◦ classroom sessions, ◦ table-top exercises, ◦ functional exercises, ◦ full-scale exercises (FSEs) Hospitals identified issues.

6. Issues Frequently Cited Cost and complexity of conducting functional and FSEs Staff engagement issues Difficulty scheduling exercises due to complex work shifts, staff turnover and staff availability Difficulty simulating event conditions and information flow realistically during training Complexity of capturing and analyzing training performance data Impact of exercises on normal hospital activities

7. VR Training Virtual reality simulation of hospital incident command Testing applicability of this technology on this context NLM developed VR training environment and web e-learning platform Contractors helped design instructional aspects and exercises, conduct virtual scenario, analyze results

8. VR Training

9. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYEgZxHQHjQ

10. Findings Planning VR exercises is as costly as planning traditional table-top exercises Engaging Realistic simulation of events Real-time access to real and simulated information tools 24/7 availability through Internet Detailed performance data capture Minimizes impact on hospital operations Same platform useful for other training

11. Plans Continue exercises for BHEPP hospitals Enable hospital to design and conduct their own exercises Single-user training application Extending benefits to other hospitals “Gamification” of other applications Mobile gaming support

12. Thank you. Victor Cid, NLM DIMRC vcid@nlm.nih.gov