Assessing the Sympathetic Response of Medical Doctors and Trainees when Exposed to a Virtual Realty Mass Casualty Incident Simulation

Introduction: The occurrence of disasters and mass casualty incidents (MCIs) is on the rise, thus training rehearsal for disaster response remain paramount. Virtual reality (VR) platforms have previously been shown to be well-received, engaging, immersive training. primary objective this study was ascertain if a human actor-based VR MCI scenario could elicit sympathetic response, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), in medical doctors trainees compared baseline state. Method: A simulation filmed with students, residents, surgeons GoPro 360 camera. Subjects (n=35) were recruited sufficiently power (1-b=0.8) Wilcoxon matched-pairs test Welch’s t-test. watched an Oculus Quest headset while having HRV recorded. Multivariate logistic regression performed identify factors associated increased odds significant activation. Statistical significance established at p<0.05. Results: Thirty-five subjects enrolled included three trauma surgeons, emergency medicine (EM) attendings, eight EM six surgery 15 students. decrease observed across all groups (median 20 ms IQR 16.2, 31.4 ms) (33.2 27.2, 44.1 ms; p<0.0001). Sympathetic activation most pronounced then residents. There no difference fold-difference physicians (-48.5% +/- 32.1%) versus (-49.5% 25.2%; p=0.57). In groups, SNS occurred independently rate, age, sex, number years practice, first responder experience, or prior response. Conclusion: Live-actor elicited strong from attending physicians. By recruiting disinhibiting essential neural pathways via controlled activation, has potential enhance encoding consolidation low-cost reproducible manner.