Creating realistic nerve agent victim profiles for computer simulation of medical CBRN disaster response

In the last decades, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN)
threats have become serious risks prompting countries to prioritize preparedness
for such incidents. As CBRN scenarios are very difficult and expensive to
recreate in real life, computer simulation is particularly suited for assessing
the effectiveness of contingency plans and identifying areas of improvement.
These computer simulation exercises require realistic and dynamic victim
profiles, which are unavailable in a civilian context. In this paper we present a
set of civilian nerve agent injury profiles consisting of clinical parameters and
their evolution, as well as the methodology used to create them. These injury
profiles are based on military injury profiles and adapted to the civilian
population, using sarin for the purpose of illustration. They include commonly
measured parameters in the prehospital setting. We demonstrate that information
found in military sources can easily be adjusted for a civilian population using
a few simple assumptions and validated methods. This methodology can easily be
expanded to other chemical warfare agents as well as different ways of exposure.
The resulting injury profiles are generic so they can also be used in tabletop
and live simulation exercises. Modeling and simulation, if used correctly and in
conjunction with empirical data gathered from lessons learned, can assist in
providing the evidence practices for effective and efficient response decisions
and interventions, considering the contextual factors of the affected area and
the specific disaster scenario.