This project has two goals. First, decrease the deaths due to combat wounds by having better trained medical staffs and, second, provide a mechanism for analysis and for test and evaluation (T&E) of issues in casualty medical treatment. To meet these goals, a prototype dual purpose training and analysis system is being developed that realistically and physically simulates the emergency medical treatment process from the time of injury through initial treatment at the field hospital. The central component of this system is a physical simulation of a casualty (an instrumented mannequin), the Human Patient Simulator (HPS). The HPS was developed for training anesthesiologists and provides a dynamic, physiologically accurate simulation of a patient whose condition must be diagnosed, treated, and monitored. The premise of this project is that improved training for combat casualty care will result from the treatment of "virtual casualties" simulated by HPSs from initial trauma throughout treatment and transportation.

This paper reports on the first phase of this project which provides a medical training and test and evaluation capability not achievable currently in force on force exercises. In this phase, the HPS was customized to simulate patients with combat trauma, linkage created to the Simulated Area Weapons Effects/Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (SAWE/MILES) force on force system, an ancillary medical simulation created, and a training or analysis methodology investigated. During SAWE/MILES force on force combat training exercises, virtual casualties occur when soldiers are "hit". A virtual casualty created by a SAWE/MILES Electronic Casualty card (ECC) is transferred to a HPS for initial treatment at a Battalion Aid Station through a new software prototype and then transported (if necessary) to a field hospital. From initial trauma to treatment at the hospital, medical personnel interact with ECCs and HPSs representing virtual casualties. The new software prototype models combat casualties and missing caregivers while the virtual casualties are not simulated by HPSs or ECC's.