Students in Holland College’s Advanced Care Paramedicine program recently had the opportunity to participate in a unique trial designed to compare the effectiveness of two triage methods commonly used in incidents where there are mass casualties requiring rapid assessment.

Although there are several types of triage software available for use in mass casualty incidents, few have been validated scientifically. Spearheaded by Dr. Trevor Jain of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, the study investigated the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) method, most commonly used around the world, and the Sacco Triage Method (STM). The START system is in the public domain, whereas the STM is proprietary software licensed for commercial use only.

To compare the two methods, XVR training software was used to create a virtual simulation of a disaster. Data from 10 real cases collected following a train accident in Chatsworth, Los Angeles in 2008 was loaded into the software to create the study’s scenario. Real victim information such as sex, age, nature of injury and physiologic parameters (such as respiratory rate, heart rate, and whether the victim was ambulatory), was imported into the software.

Two groups of 13 students were given a 30-minute orientation session on the software they were to use for study. Each student then entered the virtual disaster environment, where a computer-generated firefighter indicated where the first victim was located. The student then triaged all 10 on the victims. The students were timed during the exercise, and the data was analysed to determine which method, if either, was more effective. The results showed that there was relatively little difference between the two methods, given the limited sample size; but that further investigation would be worthwhile.

“This study demonstrates that world class research in disaster medicine can be done at Holland College which contributes directly to the scientific literature in disaster management”, said Dr. Jain.”This paper demonstrated that the START triage method is a cost effective approach to triaging a mass casualty event when compared to SACCO triage method.”

Advanced Care Paramedicine instructor Brent Nicholson said faculty were very pleased to have the ACP students involved in Dr. Jain’s novel research project.

“The practice of paramedicine is one that should be evidenced based and is moving more and more in that direction.  What better way to introduce students to concepts of research and its importance to our profession than to be involved in real tangible research?  We continue to work with Dr. Jain and our medical direction team to create more of these vibrant learning opportunities.”

The study, entitled Comparison of the Sacco Triage Method Versus START Triage Using a Virtual Reality Scenario in Advance Care Paramedic Students, was published in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine.