First responder communication in CBRN environments: FIRCOM-CBRN study

Abstract

IntroductionRecent terror attacks and assassinations involving highly toxic chemical weapons have stressed the importance of sufficient respiratory protection of medical first responders and receivers. As full-face respirators cause perceptual-motor impairment, they not only impair vision but also significantly reduce speech intelligibility. The recent introduction of electronic voice projection units (VPUs), attached to a respirator, may improve communication while wearing personal respiratory protection.ObjectiveTo determine the influence of currently used respirators and VPUs on medical communication and speech intelligibility.Methods37 trauma anaesthetists carried out an evaluation exercise of six different respirators and VPUs including one control. Participants had to listen to audio clips of a variety of sentences dealing with scenarios of emergency triage and medical history taking.ResultsIn the questionnaire, operators stated that speech intelligibility of the Avon C50 respirator scored the highest (mean 3.9, ±SD 1.0) and that the Respirex Powered Respiratory Protective Suit (PRPS) NHS-suit scored lowest (1.6, 0.9). Regarding loudness the C50 plus the Avon VPU scored highest (4.1, 0.7), followed by the Draeger FPS-7000-com-plus (3.4, 1.0) and the Respirex PRPS NHS-suit scored lowest (2.3, 0.8).ConclusionsWe found that the Avon C50 is the preferred model among the tested respirators. In our model, electronic voice projection modules improved loudness but not speech intelligibility. The Respirex PRPS NHS-suit was rated significantly less favourably in respect of medical communication and speech intelligibility.

Speech intelligibility in respiratory protective equipment - Implications for verbal communication in critical care

“…After screening titles and abstracts for content relevancy, 87 were excluded and 17 full text-articles were assessed for inclusion in the narrative synthesis. Two articles [ 26 , 27 ] were excluded as they did not make comparisons with non-RPE controls. A flow diagram is provided ( Fig.…”

Improving communications in PPE: a solution for ‘landline’ telephone communication

“…(Within the MRT, the order of words on the answer sheets are varied so any learning effect is minimised.) For the Sentences Test,7 listeners were asked to rate the intelligibility of sentences on a scale of 1–5, from poor (1/5) to excellent (5/5). Scores for each pair of simultaneous recordings were compared using a paired t-test (see online supplemental appendix for the details of the MRT and Key Sentences Test).…”

Improving communications in PPE: A solution for landline telephone communication.

“…To evaluate the impact of the proposed headset on communication in PPE, a member of the ED team wearing an elastomeric mask was asked to read-out 4 sets of 50 words from the Modified Rhyme Test [8] , and 5 phrases relevant to an Emergency Department setting in the form of a Key Sentences Test [9] . The speaker’s voice was picked up simultaneously using two landline hospital telephones; one connected via the proposed headset and the other through detecting speech via a standard telephone receiver.…”