Enabling First-Aid Training Analytics for Simulation Manikins

Description

A global producer of medical simulation solutions turned to Altoros to develop a cross-platform mobile app that would facilitate emergency training.

Brief results of the collaboration:

• The company delivered a solution that contributes to the prevention of around 5 million deaths per year happening due to medical error globally.
• The cross-platform mobile app supplements 4 million simulation manikins designed for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training.
• Thanks to the analytics across 100+ CPR parameters and the tips provided, hundreds of millions medical workers, volunteers, and rescuers around the globe can master first-aid treatment skills to save more lives.

The customer

Based in Norway, the customer is a global provider of medical simulation products and training programs for emergency assistance. One of the flagship offerings are CPR training manikins to improve first-aid treatment skills for a cardiac arrest. With the first manikin produced by the company in 1960, estimated 2.5 million lives have been saved to date.

The need

Using the customer’s manikins, multiple healthcare institutions worldwide were able to train 500 million medical workers. Under a cardiac arrest simulation, the manikins used hardware configured to respond to performance metrics of the high-quality CPR procedure. However, there was no feedback for the wrong actions taken or how they should be improved.

Partnering with Altoros, the company wanted to develop a mobile app for Android and iOS that would connect to a manikin, record a training session, compile a video with mistakes made, and provide the trainees with tips to improve their skills. An MVP had to be delivered in time for an international conference where the customer was to present the solution.

The challenges

Apart from compiling a video of mistakes made during the session, the app had to automatically match a relevant tip with the particular mistake.The customer wanted to develop a single cross-platform mobile app to shorten delivery time and cut expenses. However, such technologies have numerous platform limitations, for instance, they do not allow for adding a video overlay out of the box.The manikins utilized a proprietary library to establish outbound connections. However, it was still in active development, which called for addressing multiple issues on the go.

The solution

By employing Xamarin, engineers at Altoros built a single cross-platform mobile app for Android and iOS, therefore reducing delivery time and cutting development costs.

With the app, users can connect to a manikin via Bluetooth, create a training session, and record the resuscitation practice. The manikin simulates a person of a particular age group: a baby, a junior, or an adult. The app receives default manikin data (age group, maximum compression depth, etc.) and 100+ dynamic metrics (a compression rate, ventilation volume, the number of interruptions during cardiac massage, etc.). Based on this data, the app evaluates the actions taken by a trainee against guidelines of the high-quality CPR procedure and visualizes the session results in charts and tables.

To ensure app usability, the team implemented custom video overlays: display of the actions taken (depth and frequency of compression, interruptions duration, etc.), session timing, etc.

Using Xamarin Media Manager, our developers enabled the system to provide a relevant tip when a trainee does something wrong or does not follow the guidelines as expected. For instance, how to position hands properly or how many chest compressions to make.

Together with the customer, our engineers helped the ih-house team to improve its proprietary library responsible for app connection with manikins, preventing any potential bottlenecks.

The outcome

Partnering with Altoros, the customer developed a cross-platform mobile app that serves the needs of CPR training. The MVP was delivered in time for an international medical conference, where the company intended to present the system to a global audience. Now, the app already works with 4 million simulation manikins used worldwide. Thanks to analytics and tips provided by the app, hundreds of millions medical workers, volunteers, rescuers, etc., can improve their resuscitation skills to save more lives in future. Together with Altoros, the manufacturer is working on further extending functionality—e.g., add electrical shock control after using defibrillators, support for different CPR guidelines, etc.