School of Informatics, Reutlingen University, Reutlingen, Germany.
University Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Tübingen, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany.
J Med Internet Res. 2024 Nov 21;26:e65728. doi: 10.2196/65728.
Digitalization in disaster medicine holds significant potential to accelerate rescue operations and ultimately save lives. Mass casualty incidents demand rapid and accurate information management to coordinate effective responses. Currently, first responders manually record triage results on patient cards, and brief information is communicated to the command post via radio communication. Although this process is widely used in practice, it involves several time-consuming and error-prone tasks. To address these issues, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an app-based mobile triage system. This system allows users to document responder details, triage categories, injury patterns, GPS locations, and other important information, which can then be transmitted automatically to the incident commanders.
This study aims to design and evaluate an app-based mobile system as a triage and coordination tool for emergency and disaster medicine, comparing its effectiveness with the conventional paper-based system.
A total of 38 emergency medicine personnel participated in a within-subject experimental study, completing 2 triage sessions with 30 patient cards each: one session using the app-based mobile system and the other using the paper-based tool. The accuracy of the triages and the time taken for each session were measured. Additionally, we implemented the User Experience Questionnaire along with other items to assess participants' subjective ratings of the 2 triage tools.
Our 2 (triage tool) × 2 (tool order) mixed multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for the triage tool (P<.001). Post hoc analyses indicated that participants were significantly faster (P<.001) and more accurate (P=.005) in assigning patients to the correct triage category when using the app-based mobile system compared with the paper-based tool. Additionally, analyses showed significantly better subjective ratings for the app-based mobile system compared with the paper-based tool, in terms of both school grading (P<.001) and across all 6 scales of the User Experience Questionnaire (all P<.001). Of the 38 participants, 36 (95%) preferred the app-based mobile system. There was no significant main effect for tool order (P=.24) or session order (P=.06) in our model.
Our findings demonstrate that the app-based mobile system not only matches the performance of the conventional paper-based tool but may even surpass it in terms of efficiency and usability. This advancement could further enhance the potential of digitalization to optimize processes in disaster medicine, ultimately leading to the possibility of saving more lives.
灾难医学中的数字化具有加速救援行动并最终拯救生命的巨大潜力。大规模伤亡事件需要快速准确的信息管理来协调有效的响应。目前，第一响应者手动在病人卡片上记录分诊结果，然后通过无线电通信向指挥所简要传达信息。尽管这种方法在实践中被广泛使用，但它涉及到几个耗时且容易出错的任务。为了解决这些问题，我们设计、实施和评估了一种基于应用程序的移动分诊系统。该系统允许用户记录响应者详细信息、分诊类别、伤害模式、GPS 位置和其他重要信息，然后自动传输到事件指挥官。
本研究旨在设计和评估一种基于应用程序的移动系统，作为紧急和灾难医学中的分诊和协调工具，将其与传统的纸质系统进行比较。
共有 38 名急诊医学人员参加了一项个体内实验研究，完成了 2 次分诊：一次使用基于应用程序的移动系统，另一次使用纸质工具。测量了每次分诊的准确性和时间。此外，我们还实施了用户体验问卷以及其他项目，以评估参与者对 2 种分诊工具的主观评价。
我们的 2（分诊工具）×2（工具顺序）混合多元方差分析显示，分诊工具有显著的主效应（P<.001）。事后分析表明，与纸质工具相比，参与者在使用基于应用程序的移动系统时，为患者分配正确分诊类别时速度更快（P<.001），准确性更高（P=.005）。此外，分析表明，与纸质工具相比，基于应用程序的移动系统在学校评分（P<.001）和用户体验问卷的所有 6 个量表（均 P<.001）上的主观评价都明显更好。在 38 名参与者中，有 36 名（95%）更喜欢基于应用程序的移动系统。我们的模型中没有工具顺序（P=.24）或会话顺序（P=.06）的显著主效应。
我们的研究结果表明，基于应用程序的移动系统不仅可以与传统的纸质工具相匹配，而且在效率和可用性方面甚至可能超过后者。这一进步可以进一步提高数字化在优化灾难医学流程方面的潜力，最终有可能挽救更多生命。
