Canadian Government

RTMW – Rapid Triage Management Workbench

Public Security and Safety Research Program:

Subsequent to the September 11th attacks, the Government of Canada created the five-year, $170 million Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI) in an effort to address national security concerns through science and technology solutions. The CRTI’s primary focus is to strengthen the nation’s preparedness for, prevention of and response to a CBRNE terrorist attack by fostering new investments in research and technology that will generate knowledge and technology, and support their application, while harnessing existing capabilities. The CRTI is led by the Department of National Defense’s (DND), Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) group.

In July 2003, the Rapid Triage Management Workbench (RTMW) proposal became one of the first projects accepted. The objective of RTMW is to enable collaboration amongst first responders, and to capture and share information in response to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) event.

Designed by first responders for first responders, RTMW can be used at any disaster imaginable whether international, regional or local. The software was designed to be rugged, easy to set up and simple to use.

Medical triage is the rapid identification, categorization and sorting of disaster scene casualties according to the severity of injuries. RTMW is a software tool for front line emergency responders and medical caregivers to capture and share knowledge and expertise in the field in response to a CBRNE, or all hazards event. It enables response team members to function as efficiently and effectively as possible by providing simultaneous access to a central source of data for casualty tracking and status details.

Features of RTMW include:

• A portable field component and a stationary central database accessible via the Internet, including wireless.
• Field component comprised of a simple configuration of the database that operates within a web browser and uses a standalone PC.
• Multi-lingual software that includes on-line help and support documentation.
• Rugged, fault-tolerant design for use under stressful climatic conditions.
• Leverages off-the-shelf technologies such as standard Windows PCs and tablets for maximum economic efficiency.
• User centric design - easy to learn and to use.

A big component of RTMW’s successful development is the quality and strength of partnerships built between the private sector, national level public sector organizations (the National Research Council of Canada), medical facilities (Ottawa Hospital, Queensway Carleton Hospital, Montfort Hospital, SCO Health Service, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario), first responders (police, fire, ambulance) and educational institutions (Carleton University). Each of these sectors helped lay the groundwork for RTMW by offering their own unique expertise in fields such as acute care and triage, software design & engineering, design interface & human factors and first response.

RTMW provides the first responder community with a system that can communicate medical information on casualties during a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive event while being:

• Accessible: Authorized users have immediate access to medical information.
• Reliable: Portable first responder component is fault tolerant and ruggedized for the field.
• Flexible: Adaptable to multiple disaster scenarios including CBRN and biohazard events.
• Usable: Multilingual, based on big button design, rapidly learned and easy to use.

The concept of an electronic based means of triaging casualties at disaster scene provides an efficient alternative to the standard paper-based triage solutions that currently exist in the field. RTMW can help first responders manage a crisis situation from the triage scene to the hospital while maintaining an organized flow of communication that can improve a hospital’s preparedness for the flow of casualties that may arrive. RTMW also cuts down on redundancy by allowing triage officers to start an initial record of information on a casualty, which is then built upon until they are passed through to a hospital where the information can serve as the basis for a patient record.