Inspiration
EMT's provide immediate response and care to medical emergencies. Many EMT trainees struggle with proper execution of standard protocols for the many different scenarios they might face. In an anonymous survey, over a 12-month period, 1 out of every 5 EMTs admitted to committing at least 1 treatment error. There are also incredibly few resources available online for EMTs to practice protocols, and the main one that we found had pretty poor user interface (check it out for yourself here). Our team has developed a game to assist aspiring EMTs in practicing these protocols and reducing errors in the field.
What it does
Our text-based story game takes players through a field scenario and guides them to make the correct choices, while pointing out and explaining mistakes and their potential consequences. By playing scenarios over and over, players will be able to commit standard protocols to memory and better execute them in the field.
How we built it
Building of the game started with research into standard protocols for EMT's. A cardiac chest pain scenario was chosen, and protocols were taken from the PA Basic Life Support Protocols handbook (big shoutout to Nate Y. for directing us to the correct resources). The scenario was then storyboarded out by Thomas and Kara, while Roy and Owen started work on the GUI environment. Thomas then worked on coding the logic, before he and Roy worked on integration into the GUI environment. During this integration, Owen continued to work on graphics, and Kara assisted in fleshing out available options and paths.
Challenges we ran into
The major challenges came in making sure everyone's code worked together and building a modular environment. None of us have ever done a collaborative coding project, nevermind one of this magnitude. Due to challenges in the GUI environment, we had to simplify a lot of the logic we originally wanted to include. There were also lots of smaller issues that came up due to lack of experience. These issues ranged from detecting too many inputs from the mouse, Python environments not being consistent, VS Live Code breaking files, GUI text going over text fields, and wrap-text function not working. Also was a notable loss in ability to function as humans after being in a windowless room coding for 42 hours. Time is not real. Sanity is low. Resources are limited, food-wise and power-wise. RIP Roy's laptop.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
To be honest, getting a game as fleshed out as we did was pretty impressive to all of us. This is all of our first hackathons, and none of us had any experience in game development. So we came in with pretty low expectations and blew those out of the water. No matter what, we're pretty proud of our work :)) (At least according to Kara at 3 am, she speaks for the three. She speaks for the three, for they have no sleep.) Some specific things we're proud of: -Finding and completing a project in something that we're interested in -The GUI -The overall aesthetic of our game and presentation -Each other
What we learned
Everyone learned a little something. At the very least, we all gained a better understanding of the emergency medicine scene. But we also got to learn more about game development and its processes, front-end development, and graphical design. Especially for our team members with no design and development experience, we got to learn a lot about working with completely different styles and bringing them together.
What's next for Med-Day
Sleep. Then Kara has a human physiology exam on Wednesday, so she's gonna go study for that. Roy and Owen have a truck-load of programming assignments to get started on. Thomas is gonna make up the 3 gym days he's missed. Maybe if the game takes off we'll reconvene and keep working on game development. But everyone is a little tired from the all-nighter, so ask us again in a few days.
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