M3TS Provides Better Care Under Fire Training

SIMETRI is embarking on the second phase of development for its Multi-Modal Medical Training System (M3TS), an advanced training system that combines physical human patient simulators, augmented reality, and haptics to provide lower-cost, more accurate training for combat medics to administer medical care while avoiding and responding to enemy fire. Throughout the Phase 2 effort, SIMETRI will continue to optimize the existing scenario and add more scenarios, starting with a focus on the incoming rate of enemy fire and response factor.

SIMETRI has developed a virtual environment surrounding a wounded soldier while engaged in active combat with a virtual enemy combatant. In this environment, the trainee must apply a tourniquet and return enemy fire when the situation calls for it. Augmented Reality (AR) plays a role by overlaying a pool of blood underneath the soldier’s wounded leg. The trainee’s weapon, medical instruments, and the wounded soldier provide haptic cues to the trainee while the virtual environment overlaid onto the physical scene and simulated physiology are provided by the M3TS system.

The result is a multi-modal system that prioritizes the realistic transfer of proper technique more than its predecessors and fills a significant training gap in combat medical care – Care Under Fire. High fidelity training systems currently in the marketplace focus on immersion but are cost prohibitive. Attempts at haptic integration have neglected critical motor skill development in favor of bulky gloves designed for vibration or simulated force.

“We aim to develop a solution that is more functional and far more affordable,” said Angela Alban, SIMETRI’s founder and CEO. “Cost-effective and sustainable systems are more likely to find their way into the hands of the warfighters who need them, and anyone administering care in these life-threatening environments deserves the best training support we can give them.”