TY - JOUR
T1 - First responder communication in CBRN environments
T2 - FIRCOM-CBRN Study
AU - Schumacher, Jan
AU - Arlidge, James
AU - Dudley, Declan
AU - Van Ross, Jennifer
AU - Garnham, Francesca
AU - Prior, Kate
PY - 2019/7/29
Y1 - 2019/7/29
N2 - Introduction: Recent terror attacks and assassinations involving highly toxic chemical weapons have stressed the importance of sufficient respiratory protection of medical first responders and receivers. As full-face respirators cause perceptual-motor impairment, they not only impair vision but also significantly reduce speech intelligibility. The recent introduction of electronic voice projection units (VPUs), attached to a respirator, may improve communication while wearing personal respiratory protection. Objective: To determine the influence of currently used respirators and VPUs on medical communication and speech intelligibility. Methods: 37 trauma anaesthetists carried out an evaluation exercise of six different respirators and VPUs including one control. Participants had to listen to audio clips of a variety of sentences dealing with scenarios of emergency triage and medical history taking. Results: In the questionnaire, operators stated that speech intelligibility of the Avon C50 respirator scored the highest (mean 3.9, ±SD 1.0) and that the Respirex Powered Respiratory Protective Suit (PRPS) NHS-suit scored lowest (1.6, 0.9). Regarding loudness the C50 plus the Avon VPU scored highest (4.1, 0.7), followed by the Draeger FPS-7000-com-plus (3.4, 1.0) and the Respirex PRPS NHS-suit scored lowest (2.3, 0.8). Conclusions: We found that the Avon C50 is the preferred model among the tested respirators. In our model, electronic voice projection modules improved loudness but not speech intelligibility. The Respirex PRPS NHS-suit was rated significantly less favourably in respect of medical communication and speech intelligibility.
AB - Introduction: Recent terror attacks and assassinations involving highly toxic chemical weapons have stressed the importance of sufficient respiratory protection of medical first responders and receivers. As full-face respirators cause perceptual-motor impairment, they not only impair vision but also significantly reduce speech intelligibility. The recent introduction of electronic voice projection units (VPUs), attached to a respirator, may improve communication while wearing personal respiratory protection. Objective: To determine the influence of currently used respirators and VPUs on medical communication and speech intelligibility. Methods: 37 trauma anaesthetists carried out an evaluation exercise of six different respirators and VPUs including one control. Participants had to listen to audio clips of a variety of sentences dealing with scenarios of emergency triage and medical history taking. Results: In the questionnaire, operators stated that speech intelligibility of the Avon C50 respirator scored the highest (mean 3.9, ±SD 1.0) and that the Respirex Powered Respiratory Protective Suit (PRPS) NHS-suit scored lowest (1.6, 0.9). Regarding loudness the C50 plus the Avon VPU scored highest (4.1, 0.7), followed by the Draeger FPS-7000-com-plus (3.4, 1.0) and the Respirex PRPS NHS-suit scored lowest (2.3, 0.8). Conclusions: We found that the Avon C50 is the preferred model among the tested respirators. In our model, electronic voice projection modules improved loudness but not speech intelligibility. The Respirex PRPS NHS-suit was rated significantly less favourably in respect of medical communication and speech intelligibility.
KW - CbRn
KW - communications
KW - resuscitation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067515287&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/emermed-2019-208413
DO - 10.1136/emermed-2019-208413
M3 - Article
SN - 1472-0205
VL - 36
SP - 456
EP - 458
JO - EMERGENCY MEDICINE JOURNAL
JF - EMERGENCY MEDICINE JOURNAL
IS - 8
ER -
