BackgroundSerious games involving virtual patients in medical education can provide a controlled setting within which players can learn in an engaging way, while avoiding the risks associated with real patients. Moreover, serious games align with medical students’ preferred learning styles. The Virtual Emergency TeleMedicine (VETM) game is a simulation-based game that was developed in collaboration with the mEducator Best Practice network in response to calls to integrate serious games in medical education and training. The VETM game makes use of data from an electrocardiogram to train practicing doctors, nurses, or medical students for problem-solving in real-life clinical scenarios through a telemedicine system and virtual patients. The study responds to two gaps: the limited number of games in emergency cardiology and the lack of evaluations by professionals.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is a quantitative, professional feedback-informed evaluation of one scenario of VETM, involving cardiovascular complications. The study has the following research question: “What are professionals’ perceptions of the potential of the Virtual Emergency Telemedicine game for training people involved in the assessment and management of emergency cases?”MethodsThe evaluation of the VETM game was conducted with 90 professional ambulance crew nursing personnel specializing in the assessment and management of emergency cases. After collaboratively trying out one VETM scenario, participants individually completed an evaluation of the game (36 questions on a 5-point Likert scale) and provided written and verbal comments. The instrument assessed six dimensions of the game: (1) user interface, (2) difficulty level, (3) feedback, (4) educational value, (5) user engagement, and (6) terminology. Data sources of the study were 90 questionnaires, including written comments from 51 participants, 24 interviews with 55 participants, and 379 log files of their interaction with the game.ResultsOverall, the results were positive in all dimensions of the game that were assessed as means ranged from 3.2 to 3.99 out of 5, with user engagement receiving the highest score (mean 3.99, SD 0.87). Users’ perceived difficulty level received the lowest score (mean 3.20, SD 0.65), a finding which agrees with the analysis of log files that showed a rather low success rate (20.6%). Even though professionals saw the educational value and usefulness of the tool for pre-hospital emergency training (mean 3.83, SD 1.05), they identified confusing features and provided input for improving them.ConclusionsOverall, the results of the professional feedback-informed evaluation of the game provide a strong indication of its potential as an educational tool for emergency training. Professionals’ input will serve to improve the game. Further research will aim to validate VETM, in a randomized pre-test, post-test control group study to examine possible learning gains in participants’ problem-solving skills in treating a patient’s symptoms in an emergency situation.

Τhe performance of rescuers and personnel handling major emergencies or crisis events can be significantly improved through continuous training and through technology support. The work done in order to create a system has been discussed which can support both resources and victims during a crisis or major emergency event. More specifically, the system supports real-time management of firefighter teams, rescue teams, health services, and victims during a major disaster. It can be deployed in an ad hoc manner in the disaster area, as a standalone infrastructure (using its own telecommunications and power). It mainly consists of a control station, which is installed in the area command centre, the firefighters units, the rescuers units, the ambulance vehicles units, and the telemedicine units that can be used in order to support victim handling at the casualties clearing station. The system has been tested and improved through continuous communication with experts and through professional exercises; the results and conclusions are presented.1. Introduction: Recent crisis events and major emergencies have increased the need for more effective and accurate response procedures. Civilians involved in a crisis or major emergency event are becoming sensitive and demanding. First, responders such as firefighters and rescuers are the first groups that have to deal with such events, secure the area and enable immediate victim treatment and area evacuation in the case of a major emergency event.Management of first responders during crises or disasters is the major field of interest of this Letter. A recent report from the World Health Organisation [1] states that during the decade 2001-2010, an average of 700 disasters (flood, earthquakes etc.) were reported on an annual basis. These disasters affected around 270 million people. Deaths reported exceeded 130,000. Typically, after a disaster, the area infrastructure (telecommunications, electricity, building etc.) collapses. Civilians might respond in a chaotic way after a major emergency event, which is why first responders such as firefighters and rescuers need to take control and react in an effective and systematic way. Several issues can also arise among the members of the rescue groups; these could be related to coordination, decision making, and team collaboration, among others. These are issues that can be improved through continuous training before an event [2,3].Along these lines and having in mind the evolution of modern technology (portable devices, easily installed ad hoc networks, small medical devices etc.), we had designed, created, and tested a system which can be used during a crisis event such as a major accident, a terrorist attack, a natural disaster etc.). The system was developed based on the main axes described in the literature for effective emergency management: (i) mitigation, to prevent or lessen the impact of disaster; (ii) preparedness, which includes training and action plans; (iii) response, search and rescue activities; and (iv) recovery, resto...

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Introduction: The support of prehospital and emergency call handling and the impact of Covid-19 is discussed throughout this study. The initial purpose was to create an electronic system (eEmergency system) in order to support, improve, and help the procedure of handling emergency calls. This system was expanded to facilitate needed operation changes for Covid-19.Materials and Methods: An effort to reform the procedures followed for emergency call handling and Ambulance dispatch started on the Island of Cyprus in 2016; along that direction, a central call centre was created. The electronic system presented in this work was designed for this call centre and the new organization of the ambulance services. The main features are the support for ambulance fleet handling, the support for emergency call evaluation and triage procedure, and the improvement of communication between the call centre and the ambulance vehicles. This system started regular operation at the end of 2018. One year later, when Covid-19 period started, we expanded it with the addition of several new features in order to support the handling of patients infected with the new virus.Results: This system has handled 112,414 cases during the last 25 months out of which 4,254 were Covid-19 cases. These cases include the transfer of patients from their house to the reference hospital, or the transfer of critical patients from the reference hospital to another hospital with an intensive care unit or transfer of patients from one hospital to another one for other reasons, like the number of admissions.Conclusion: The main purpose of this study was to create an electronic system (eEmergency system) in order to support, improve, and help the procedure of handling emergency calls. The main components and the architecture of this system are outlined in this paper. This system is being successfully used for 25 months and has been a useful tool from the beginning of the pandemic period of Covid-19.

The main purpose of this study was to create an electronic system (eEmergency system) in order to support, improve and help the procedure of handling emergency calls. An effort to reform the procedures followed for emergency call handling and Ambulance dispatch started on the Island of Cyprus since 2016; along that direction, a central call center was created. The present electronic system was designed for this call center. The main features are the support for ambulance fleet handling, the support for emergency call evaluation and triage procedure and the improvement of communication between the call center and the ambulance vehicles. The main components and the design of this system are outlined in this paper. The part of incident evaluation and ambulance handling, has been in daily practice for more than one year and since then more than 62000 calls were successfully handled and recorded with the use of this system. This system was successfully used from the beginning of the pandemic period of Covid-19.

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