Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Triage video game, by TruSim
A scene from the Triage video game created by TruSim
A scene from the Triage video game created by TruSim

Video game teaches medics how to treat blast victims

This article is more than 16 years old

Doctors are to be trained on a video game that simulates the effects of a city centre explosion, to help them decide how best to treat casualties.

In the game a major explosion has left people injured around the imaginary city's streets. Doctors have to navigate to the bodies and assess patients' treatment priority based on breathing, circulation and pulse rates.

The "serious game" has been developed for medical education charity Advanced Life Saving Group, which runs courses for NHS hospital staff and other medical professionals. The Manchester-based charity plans to use it at a training seminar for the first time next month.

Developers hope the game will offer an innovative way to supplement NHS doctors' training.

"It is not a game to be used in isolation but it does offer another way of teaching doctors to deal with major incidents," said Bryan Tregunna, a consultant instructional designer for the developers Vega.

A second game, to help NHS staff counter potentially fatal hospital superbugs such as MRSA, is also being developed by the professional services company and creators TruSim, a division of Blitz Games.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS trust in West Yorkshire and the North-west ambulance service trust are runnning a pilot to assess how video games could improve the behaviour of staff who are lax at implementing infection controls.

Mr Tregunna said the developers have studied how thoroughly the trusts' staff implement infection control procedures and are now working on scenarios for the game to address.

The trusts' staff are mainly women over 40 and not regular video game players, so the challenge is to produce a game which is simple but effective in reinforcing infection control training, he said.

Steve Jarvis of Vega is working with the trusts and is due to address the Health Protection Agency (HPA) annual conference at the University of Warwick today.

He said: "Initial findings show the attitude of healthcare workers is a factor in whether they choose to adhere to infection control policies. If we can use games to engage people, we have the potential to create more effective training and learning."

An HPA spokeswoman said the games were still at the prototype stage and were being used for research purposes.

Explore more on these topics

Most viewed

Most viewed