The Emergotrain System for Training and Testing Disaster Preparedness: 15 years of Experience

Objectives To create, develop, test and evaluate an interactive system for education and training in disaster medicine, adjustable to any organization and giving an objective assessment of training and testing. Methods A system that is simple to use and does not require sophisticated equipment was developed, based on magnetic symbols representing patients, staff and resources, movable markers indicating priority and treatment, and a large patient-bank with a protocol giving results of treatment based on trauma score. The methodology was tested in two models: classroom mode and advanced interactive mode, at all levels, regionally, nationally and internationally. Results During 1987-2001, a total of 8777 students were trained with the system with the classroom mode in 94 regional, 37 national and 8 international courses. The advanced interactive mode was used for 2518 students in 14 regional, 22 national and 18 international courses. The students' evaluation of the quality of the methodology based on a scor...