This past month, Operative Experience made medical and military history with its groundbreaking and innovative simulator, the Prolonged Casualty Care Female Simulator (PCCS Pro), the first of its kind to be accredited by the U.S. Army. To ensure that women service members receive appropriate and quality medical care in the field, the Army has placed PCCS Pro Female mannequins in all 23 of their Medical Simulation Training Centers (MSTC). These centers provide realistic battlefield and pre-hospital care training for military members.
The lessons and practice that students receive at MSTCs are often the difference between life and death for wounded service members. The use of PCCS Pro Female simulators at all MSTCs is a testament to the high quality and multiple uses of the mannequin. “The Army has never fielded female trauma simulators before, so having the PCCS Pro Female accredited and ready for training is a huge milestone in ensuring all our Soldiers receive the highest possible medical care,” says Lou Oberndorf, OEI’s Chairman and CEO.
Take a look at the PCCS Pro Female and what it means for military medical training and care:
1. It’s a first in medical training
It might be hard to believe, but it’s true: there were no physiologically and anatomically correct female simulators built before the PCCS Pro Female. Previous mannequins were sized to the average male service member’s specifications at five feet eleven inches and 180 pounds, rather than the average female service member’s at five feet nine inches and 135 pounds. If a female simulator was required, superficial changes were made to satisfy the training requirements. “You basically had a Russian weightlifter with a female wig and breasts as a mannequin. You had some female landmarks that would cause you to believe this was a female, but it just wasn’t realistic,” says Walter Engle, CEO of Chiral Medical Consulting and project consultant.
OEI didn’t stop at height and weight requirements. The PCCS Pro Female also incorporates other important physiological markers that previously were overlooked, such as blood volume. The average male body contains five liters of blood, whereas the average female body contains 3.75 liters. The PCCS Pro Female reflects this and many other differences between sexes that impact medical care. “You need a realistic trainer to maintain familiarity and proficiency treating a female casually,” says Engle.
In addition, the PCCS Pro Female has other highly realistic features, including a variety of skin tone options, simulations of wounds such as IED explosions, blunt trauma, and gunshot wounds, and lifelike tissue and skin.
2. The PCCS Pro Female is changing the game for military training
“Data has shown that female casualties have a higher rate of mortality than their male counterparts due to a variety of causes, including hesitancy of males properly assessing fatal wounds, as well as cultural or psychological factors,” says Paul Bernal, OEI VP Global Sales and Business Development. As the only female simulator accredited by the Army, the PCCS Pro Female offers a better training experience for service members than ever before. A more accurate, more realistic training foundation means more prepared medical professionals and better results for wounded women in the field.
3. The PCCS Pro Female exceeds U.S. Army requirements
The result of a six-year collaboration with the Army, the PCCS Pro Female’s ideation began when OEI was awarded a $3.6 million Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation. In addition, OEI matched the grant with its own research and design investment to support the development of the first anatomically and physiologically correct female simulator.
OEI used the Army’s specifications as a jumping-off point, not a finish line. “OEI could have made a female Barbie doll mannequin with no mechanical guts, no physiologic response. That would have satisfied what the request for proposals asked for,” says Engle. Instead, the PCCS Pro Female includes features like full articulation of all joints and responses for the entire continuum of care.
Because the PCCS Pro Female is a high fidelity and high durability mannequin, a broad range of medical professionals are now able to learn to offer better care for women. “Seeing the results of the collaboration and co-investment by OEI and the U.S. Army and being able to put these medical training products in the hands of our brave military men and women is a minimum standard of care that is long overdue and the right thing to do,” says Oberndorf.
