BladeShield 101: A Novel Prehospital Digital Wearable Combat Casualty Card

Background: The focus of the Israeli Defense Forces-Medical Corps (IDF-MC) is on reducing preventable death by improving prehospital trauma care. High-quality documentation of care can serve for casualty care and improve future care. Currently, paper casualty cards are used for documentation. Incomplete data acquisition and inadequate data handover are common. To resolve these deficits, the IDF-MC launched the BladeShield 101 project. Objectives: To assess the quality of casualty care data acquired comparing standard paper casualty cards with the BladeShield 101. Methods: The BladeShield 101 system consists of three components: a patient unit that records vital signs, medical care provided by a medical sensor that transmits to the patient unit and, a ruggedized mobile device that allows providers to access and document information. We compared all trauma registries of casualties treated between September 2019 and June 2020. Results: The system was applied during the study period to 24 patients. All data were transferred to the military trauma registry within one day, compared to 72% (141/194) with a paper casualty card (P < 0.01). Information regarding treatment time was available in 100% vs. 43% (P < 0.01) of cases and 98% vs. 67% (P < 0.01) of treatments provided were documented comparing BladeShield 101 with paper cards, respectively. Conclusions: The use of an autonomous system to record, view, deliver, and store casualty information may resolve most current information flow deficits. This solution will ultimately result in significant improvements to individual patient care and systematic learning and development processes.