Treffer: Application Development for Optimizing Patient Placement on Aeromedical Evacuation Flights: Proof-of-Concept

A critical, yet challenging step in mission planning for aeromedical evacuation (AE) is patient positioning on the airframe. Prior to each flight, an AE provider designates seat and litter assignments for patients, flight crew, AE crew, non-medical attendees, and all additional passengers. Patient destination, type (ambulatory or litter), injury/illness, acuity, and equipment requirements all influence the development of the patient positioning plan. An interactive tool to aid AE crewmembers in the creation, modification, and distribution of these plans would streamline the plan development process. Thus, as a proof-of-concept, the study team conducted a multi-phased effort to develop a tool to optimize patient placement for AE. The first phase established current patient placement practices for multiple AE airframes through structured subject matter expert (SME) interviews and the review of literature and regulatory documents. SMEs provided valuable insight into regulatory constraints, guidelines, and common practices specific to the AE environment. During phase 2, the study team developed a graphical prototype in Microsoft Excel to storyboard the logic requirements of the interactive tool. In phase 3, information garnered in the first two phases facilitated the development of a proof-of-concept iOS mobile application to assist AE personnel in the development of patient positioning plans. As a final step, SMEs reviewed the tool and provided recommendations for modifications. These recommendations highlighted the need to conduct usability testing in a flight environment to compare the resulting efficiency and accuracy of the tool to methods currently employed.