Towards a knowledge-intensive serious game for training emergency medical services

In the preparedness activity for disasters and emergency management, serious games can help in training medical first responders by providing emergency simulations which are always available, safer and cheaper than real-world simulations. However, serious games for training emergency medical services (EMS) must take into account the presence of different actors in crisis situation like police and firefighters and the high volume of (medical as well as non-medical) expert knowledge. The aim of our approach is not only to acquire technical skills but also to develop the capability to act, to cooperate and coordinate in non-procedurally previewed emergency situations. This paper proposes both (i) a detailed prototype of a serious game’s scenario that supports instructors in the training in EMS and (ii) an adaptive infrastructure A.R.G.I.L.E (Architecture for Representations, Games, Interactions, and Learning among Experts). We illustrate our ideas on an example of a complex road accident. This work is done with the collaboration of a Hospital Emergency Department implied with us in a R&D project