Thessaloniki, Greece, 15th June 2022
The 3rd MED1stMR consortium meeting took place from 14th to 15th June 2022 in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted by the project partner Hellenic Rescue Team. Representatives from 18 partner organisations attended and discussed the next steps in the project.
MED1stMR started in June 2021, aiming to improve medical first responder training by developing an innovative mixed reality (MR) solution and a training curriculum. After the project’s first year, all partners met in Thessaloniki (physical & online) at the bi-annual general consortium meeting to present the progress and discuss further collaboration to achieve the goals.
Day 1 – end user requirements, dissemination and exploitation
The first day started with a warm welcome from the coordinator AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, Center for Technology Experience, and the hosting organisation HRT – Hellenic Rescue Team. The introduction was followed by a presentation of WP2 – End user requirements and a lively discussion on the further refinement and prioritisation by the gathered results. This early end user involvement is a central aspect of proceeding successfully with the agile development of the technical partners based on the end user needs. UHEI – University Heidelberg proceeded with the status of WP3 – Development of innovative Training Approaches for Effective Performance in Medical Emergencies and presented the studies they are currently planning and conducting to create the backbone scientific model of the MED1stMR project. Afterwards, the project’s Dissemination and Communication (WP8) status were presented by USECON – The Usability Consultants GmbH and an exploitation workshop as preparation for a Horizon Results Booster workshop were conducted. All partners got together in small working groups and contributed their expertise to refine the identified key exploitable results and a business plan for the project. The results of the groups were presented to the whole plenum and will be discussed with the EU in a separate workshop. At the end of the day, all present partners got together at the social dinner for networking and knowledge exchange in an informal setting.
Day 2 – Technology presentations and demonstrations
The second day started with an outlook on the technical development that is planned within WP4 and WP5 by the technology partners PLUX – Biosensors, IDENER – training dashboard application including centric data platform, web frontend and AI services, and Refense – VR training system. Refense also demonstrated a first version of their MR Scenario Editor to give all partners an insight into the possibilities to create scenarios for the medical first responder training. The next topic was the end user management in the project to estimate the availability of the project’s end users for the rest of the year. This is a crucial aspect of the agile end user centred approach since the research partners will execute studies on the individual stages of development where input from and participation by the end users is required. After the lunch break, all partners were invited to try different prototypes and already used technologies in the field of virtual simulation, mixed reality and biosignal measurement. These were developments in the project like the VR Co-creation tool to collaboratively design disaster situations, biosensors to assess the trainees’ stress and the mixed reality prototype providing tangible interaction with a manikin in VR. End users got a hands-on impression of the technology and provided important qualitative feedback on usability requirements and needs for research and development partners.
We are looking back to a great meeting with exciting presentations, lively discussions and an impressive technology demo from all partners.
