JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, TX –
Army medics deployed
to remote or austere locations can face challenges when caring for injured
Soldiers.
In an effort to
provide medical care guidance and recommendations by senior, experienced critical
care providers to medics in tough situations a new project called Virtual
Critical Care Consultation, or VC3, has been underway for the last several
months.
According to Lt. Col.
(Dr.) Jeremy Pamplin, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center
intensive care init medical director and chief of clinical trials at Fort Sam
Houston, the VC3 project is designed to provide a low-cost, simple
tele-monitoring system to inexperienced providers caring for critically ill
patients and improve patient outcomes.
“The other potential
user would be a small Army community hospital that doesn’t have critical care
resources like critical care doctors, nurses or trauma surgeons,” Pamplin said.
“For instance, a patient arrives at the community hospital but is not
critically ill at the time.
“The providers may be
on the fence as to how to care for the patient,” Pamplin added. “Should they
transport the patient to a larger hospital with critical care capabilities or
admit the patient and observe him for a while? In this kind of environment, the
staff could use the VC3 to get some recommendations and guidance.”
The VC3 project is
being funded by the U.S. Army Medical Department Advanced Medical Technologies
Initiative as a performance improvement program. The project was started in
late 2015 and has been used by various Special Forces units during field
training exercises.
Pamplin said the
feedback from the personnel involved in the training exercises has been very
positive.
“Deployed medics who
are able to pick up the phone and talk to a critical care provider while caring
for a critically ill patient has provided them tremendous confidence and
reassurance,” he said.
To help identify other
current technology that can be used immediately or within the next six months,
the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston hosted a VC3
“Device Day” where several vendors showcased existing technology to determine
if it could support the project.
Pamplin, along with
Air Force Capt. (Dr.) Jeffrey DellaVolpe, SAMMC
trauma surgeon, were
among the key participants who tested the devices simultaneously with another
group at Fort Bragg, N.C.
“A program like VC3
has the potential to be an indispensable tool to both deployed medics as well
as to hospitals without robust critical care staff,” DellaVolpe said. “While
the military currently has a shortage of critical care providers, it
unfortunately does not have a shortage of critically ill patients. VC3 allows
the expertise that exists at SAMMC to be at the fingertips of a provider
virtually anywhere in the world.”
Pamplin explained that
the platform they are looking for should be easy to use without too many
distracting features.
“Video
teleconferencing, imaging and continuous monitoring capabilities are nice to
have, but not necessary in most circumstances,” Pamplin said. “Technology can
distract from patient care. One of the things we’ve learned from the field
training exercises is that if we can get photos ahead then we can provide the
right clinical advice to best support the clinician on the ground.”
Pamplin added that the
most useful photos are those of the care environment, the actual flowsheet that
the clinician is using to care for the patient, the kit being used, and the wound.
“If we can get a
better understanding of the clinical scenario then we can provide a more robust
consult,” Pamplin said. “The less distractions that there are on both ends
means that we can provide better patient care to the wounded warfighter.”