Salford University helps plan for World Cup emergencies
Researchers at the University of Salford have developed a new piece of software which has been used to plan for emergencies in South Africa's World Cup stadiums
The software marks a real step forward in planning for emergency medical scenarios as it replaces physical models using toy building blocks to represent people or resources which were unable to show complex data, move ahead in real time or be captured as snapshots for later reviews.
By using confidential data provided by the South African authorities, the software has been used by emergency services to simulate a range of scenarios which result in casualties.
The software is based on models used in hospitals to plan for an influx of casualties following a major incident. It was developed by the University's Lee Griffiths, a Computer Science researcher, and one of his students, Dr Jane Mooney, a physician who works at Salford Royal Hospital.
Lee Griffiths said: "Scenario planning for major events is standard practice but we felt that the toy blocks style physical process which is typically used could be improved using technology.
"By using a games engine we've created something which is far more flexible, informative and can be adapted simply by inputting data from any event."
Part of the testing of the prototype was carried out by some unusual gamers. Lee and Jane visited Woodhey High School in Bury where the students tested out their gaming skills in an emergency scenario.
