title: New Wide Area Virtual Environment (WAVE) medical education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Accomplish the first large-scale combat casualty training using multiple-modality hybrid simulation in the Uniformed Services University's one-of-a-kind three-dimensional Wide Area Virtual Environment (WAVE).
  
  
  METHODS
  91 first-year medical students (MS1) completed a WAVE training session as part of their Combat Medical Skills course. In teams of 6 students, they treated two combat casualties with blast wounds (one a SimMan 3G, and another a standardized patient) during15-minute scenarios in the WAVE. The WAVE is a unique medical simulation environment comprising an 8,000-square-foot virtual space composed of two pods surrounded by circumferential 9 × 12-foot movie screens and a high-fidelity directional sound system. Students completed WAVE quality assurance surveys to describe their impressions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  91 MS1s were trained in a 4.5-hour period (including pre- and post-briefs) without technical difficulties during this inaugural training experience. Student survey data indicated a strong desire for more WAVE training in the curriculum (2.9 on a 3-point Leikert scale), and a strong preference for training in the WAVE vs. traditional training methods (4.6 on a 5-point Leikert scale).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The novel WAVE platform can be implemented successfully for combat casualty training and represents a significant technological advancement in simulated military medical training.
authors.affiliation: Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goolsby
authors.affiliation: Graduate Medical Education Office, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Building 1, 19th Floor, Room 19107, 8901 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20889.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vest
authors.affiliation: Emergency Center, Inova Fairfax Hospital, 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA 22042.
authors.forename: Tress
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goodwin
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000628:therapy*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000193:education*; D008889:Military Personnel; D013337:Students, Medical; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014857:Warfare