SBIR/STTR Award attributes
The Army, and the DoD in general, has a gender casualty survivability gap problem: female casualties have a significantly lower survival rate than male casualties. Reasons for this gender gap include: training is done largely with male manikins and female abdominal and chest wounds are not identified or treated properly because of hesitancy in exposing these parts of the female body. The Army is addressing this problem by using Gender Retrofit Kits to convert male manikins to female to provide gender specific training. However, much more needs to be done including developing training methods and material that give soldiers the skills and confidence needed to treat female casualties. Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp) and its sub-contractor Raytheon BBN Technologies propose Artemis (Augmented Reality To Enhance Medical Instruction for Soldiers) to reduce the gender survivability gap. Artemis combines physical training using manikins with augmented reality (AR) based training. Physical training provides the hands-on experiences essential for building confidence in the ability to provide the necessary care when needed. AR allows for personalized, one-on-one instruction by human trainers without requiring a trainer for each student or requiring the trainer to be co-located with the student. One-on-one training will help soldiers overcome the psychological barriers that contribute to female casualties not getting the care they need.
