Proceedings of the Public Security S&T Summer Symposium 2009

CRTI 07-0150TD

Casualty Care Continuum

Project Lead: DRDC Ottawa

Industry Partners: AMITA Corporation, CAM Emergency Preparedness, Correct Solutions, E-Privacy Management Systems Inc.

Other Partners: British Columbia Ambulance Service, Canadian Red Cross, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Queen’s University, Toronto Emergency Medical Services, University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Objectives

The primary focus of the Casualty Care Continuum (CCC) project is to improve incident response by providing better information to responders. Present systems have proven to be deficient in tracking casualties and providing accurate and timely information for decision makers at municipal, provincial, and federal levels. CCC addresses the challenges associated with casualty management from the incident scene to the hospital emergency department. The seamless integration of event-related data provided by this project will create a continuum of care from the event scene to the emergency department.

The Rapid Triage Management Workbench (RTMW), developed under CRTI 0060TA, will be refined into a new system for unified casualty management. The steady stream of accurate information provided by RTMW will be available throughout all levels of care and ultimately improve outcomes via increased efficiencies, better internal situational awareness, and better communication with the public.

The CCC project will follow a six-phase plan to be carried out over two years. Phase 1 includes project startup activities such as contracting and the production of the project charter and project plans. Phase 2 includes the deployment of the existing RTMW system with the British Columbia Ambulance Service and the Toronto Emergency Medical Services. Phase 3 includes the technology demonstration of the RTMW system. Phase 4 includes the enhancement of RTMW to provide the unified casualty management system. Phase 5 includes the technology demonstration of the unified casualty management capability. Phase 6 concludes the project with an evaluation of the CCC unified casualty management system and provision of completed response protocols. Beyond the project, the vision of the project team is that the collaborations established in CCC will form the nucleus of a consortium that will support this technology and promote its uptake across Canada.

Relevance

The CCC project will provide a system solution for casualty tracking and casualty management for all-hazard events involving affected and non-affected members of the public. CCC will also improve communication amongst responders and other stakeholders by providing a common access point for collecting and distributing casualty and other critical information such as agent protective equipment and information resources about treatment and hazards. Additionally, the CCC solution will support crime scene attribution in situations when a person that caused an event is among the casualties. It will capture when and where each casualty was entered into the system, the location where they received treatment, and which facility an individual is presently located at. It will also help identify caregivers and other casualties who have been exposed by contact with a contaminated individual. With this casualty tracking capability, CCC will minimize event-associated distress.

Recent Progress and Results

The CCC project began in March 2008, and the team has made progress in the first two phases. Phase 1, project startup, was completed in April 2009. Deliverables produced by the team included the project charter, project definition, contracting activities, project plans, project success criteria, and project functional scope.

Phase 2, release 1 of CCC, started in January 2009 and is in progress. The Phase 2 deliverables completed by the team to date include the first issue of the project newsletter, CCC-RTMW, Release 1, specifications and design. Deployment of CCC-RTMW, Release 1, is scheduled for the British Columbia Ambulance Service in April 2009 and deployment to the Toronto Emergency Medical Services will follow shortly after.

Phase 3, demonstration of CCC, Release 1, is scheduled to start in May 2009.

Impact

CCC will deliver transition and sustainability after the project is completed. The implementation of CCC-RTMW with the British Columbia Ambulance Service may result in the use of this product for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. With such forward-thinking partners as the Toronto Emergency Medical Services and the British Columbia Ambulance Service, the transition of CCC-RTMW from Technology Demonstration to a marketable industry product is realistic. RTMW, the basis of the CCC project, is already in the process of being deployed in southeast Asia.

The CCC project simultaneously addresses several CRTI priority areas: CCC will have an important impact on both preparedness and response and speaks to the priority of establishing pre-emergency room and emergency room triage of people effected by CBRNE events and enabling the development of tools or techniques for immediate or onsite identification, diagnosis, or monitoring of effects caused by CBRNE events. It will also develop models, methods, techniques, and training tools to assist medical responders addressing a CBRNE event and develop intelligence gathering and forensic methods, investigational tools, and technologies that support the detection, identification, and attribution of CBRNE hazardous material to source. The CCC project additionally addresses the emerging technology priority by integrating RTMW with voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for user intercommunication, and radio frequency identification technology to track casualties.

Authors

Sonny Lundahl, AMITA Corporation, sonnyl@amita.com

Diana Wilkinson, DRDC Ottawa, diana.wilkinson@drdc-rddc.gc.ca

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