Interactive Cognitive Artifacts for Enhancing Situation Awareness of Incident Commanders in Mass Casualty Incidents

In mass casualty incidents (MCIs), incident commanders are responsible for managing operations, guiding rescue forces and applying resources appropriately. Data required for situation assessment and decision making are gathered and shared by numerous face-to-face talks, radio calls and paper-based forms. These tools and means of communication support flexible modes of operation but often lead to deficient awareness of the situation. Information sharing in the field is hampered and delayed. Interactive cognitive artifacts might improve the situations compared to using established paper-based artifacts by exchanging and visualizing data in real-time. However, because of users' workload and working conditions, designing mobile computer-based tools and systems for this context of use is a usability challenge. Based on the results of a two-year user-centered system design project with Emergency Medical Services, we discuss currently used and interactive cognitive artifacts for incident commanders. Challenges and approaches to successful user interface and interaction design are described.