title: Data collection in a live mass casualty incident simulation:  automated RFID technology versus manually recorded system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate the applicability and the reliability of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system to collect data during a live exercise.
  
  
  METHODS
  A rooftop collapse of a crowded building was simulated. Fifty-three volunteers were trained to perform as smart victims, simulating clinical conditions, using dynamic data cards, and capturing delay times and triage codes. Every victim was also equipped with a RFID tag. RFID antenna was placed at the entrance of the advanced medical post (AMP) and emergency department (ED) and recorded casualties entering the hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 12 victims entered AMP and 31 victims were directly transferred to the ED. 100% (12 of 12 and 31 of 31) of the time cards reported a manually written hospital admission time. No failures occurred in tag reading or data transfers. A correlation analysis was performed between the two methods plotting the paired RFID and manual times and resulted in a r=0.977 for the AMP and r=0.986 for the ED with a P value of less than 0.001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We confirmed the applicability of RFID system to the collection of time delays. Its use should be investigated in every aspect of data collection (triage, treatments) during a disaster exercise.
authors.affiliation: CRIMEDIM Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy. pierluigi.ingrassia@med.unipmn.it
authors.forename: Pier Luigi
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Ingrassia
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carenzo
authors.forename: Federico Lorenzo
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Barra
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Colombo
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ragazzoni
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tengattini
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Prato
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Geddo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Della Corte
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004189:Disaster Planning; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011361:Professional Competence; D057233:Radio Frequency Identification Device; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014218:Triage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*