Animation-based requirements analysis of a map application user interface to support critical MCI situations

In mass casualty incidents (MCI) the emergency medical services resources are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. Unpredictable catastrophic events require a lot of information about the situation and an extremely well-organized emergency management response system. To increase the chance of survival, planning and preparedness are essential. Emergency response is undergoing a technology driven transformation that calls for an intuitive and self-explanatory user interface (UI) visualization. We explore the current real-time map application UI for MCI to make it more user-oriented and extend the available features. The main purpose of this research is to obtain a thorough and detailed understanding of the emergency response needs and interests. Furthermore, this work concentrates on creating a detailed functional specification defining the full set of visualization modalities to be developed. Our goal is to derive concrete requirements, based on realistically conceptualized MCI scenarios, which are presented as animations. As part of the SpeedUp project this paper is a foundation for further insights and research in this area. 1 Motivation and Related Work A mass casualty incident (MCI) is an event, which generates more patients than locally available resources can manage simultaneously. This requires an exceptional emergency response system that provides additional information about the number, location and medical condition of patients and the emergency scene. In this paper one major goal in map application design is to display all relevant information in a more intuitive and selfexplanatory way and increase the efficiency of the situational awareness. Additionally, we aim to further develop the currently existing visualization techniques and explore alternative methods and concepts. In collaboration with the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund München2 1The project SpeedUp is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the program ”Research for Civil Security“. Website: http://www.speedup-projekt.de 2The Worker’s Samaritan Federation (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland, ASB) is an aid and welfare organization devoted to rescue services. we identified key areas of improvement in the map visualization considering the emergency response needs and interests. The main focus was on conducting a requirements analysis that has continuously evolved through two iterations of field-studies, adapted concepts and focus-group interviews. The chain of events in the medical and resource coordination poses some serious challenges. In our research we looked for typical occurrences and problems in MCI and conceptualized them in emergency situations to create realistic animation-based scenarios. This includes issues such as communication loss, insufficient information, poor data collection, resources planning, patient monitoring and documentation. Most of related work focus on the communication infrastructure, patient tracking and monitoring, electronic documentation, recording of patient data and GPS integration. The visualization itself, usually based on symbols, is rarely an object of interest. One of the first universal symbol languages was the NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems that has been established for years. Killeen et al. [JKL06] present the WIISARD system, which uses PDAs to store and send the patients information. However, one disadvantage of this system is the lack of real-time patients information. Gao et al. [GW06] introduce an eTriage system, which includes electronic triage tags, wearable vital sign sensors, software for tracking patients and communication support. The e-Triage project allows the technicians to acquire patients information, electronic documentation and patient tracking. This system was further enhanced [MIS12] through a new visualization approach presenting three different views. The inter-site view shows a map overview of the latest status in multiple first-aid stations including the number of technicians and patients of each triage category. The intra-site view reveals more detailed information including location, triage category and vital signs of each patient on a 3D map. Another view, the individual view, shows the vital signs of a single patient on a tablet PC using augmented reality techniques.