History

The MACSIM system was innovated by the late Sten Lennquist, Professor of Disaster Medicine and his daughter Kristina Lennquist Montán RN, PhD. Together they formed and led group of international experts within Disaster Medicine to develop the most detailed simulation system on the market. Professor Lennquist had previously developed and launched the EmergoTrain System in the 1980s. When Kristina was planning her thesis in Triage the research group needed a more powerful system to compare available triage methods. They found the available systems not to be detailed and realistic enough. Therefore, they decided to design a simple yet detailed simulation that could provide researchers and users with the same amount of information they would get form a real patient. One key function that they needed to integrate into the system was the physiological dynamics of a real patient. It was therefore decided to base all MACSIM patients on real patient cases where the information about the injury severity and original status and detonation was known. By using algorithms based on the severity of the injuries and the treatments performed they could build the MACSIM system. The design of the MACSIM patient card is logically set up for people experienced in the health care professions and laymen. The first 360 patients were based on a close collaboration with Professor Fernando Turegano and Spanish doctors involved in the medical response to the Madrid bombings in 2004. Detailed information collected from the injury patterns of the patients from the terror attacks provided a base for building the MACSIM patient cases. Following patient banks have been created similarly from real cases from accidents including bus crashes, knife attacks, run over scenarios, burs, etc.

The MACSIM system was validated by scientific publications measuring its exactness and usefulness as method for simulation, education, training, and research. After a presentation at the European Conference of Trauma and Emergency Surgery the system gained visibility and popularity.

Through a collaboration within Disaster and Military Section of ESTES (European Society of Trauma and Emergency Surgery) the MRMI courses were designed and launched. www.mrmi.eu The courses are covering the whole chin of response to major incidents and are based on the MACSIM system for simulation and training in decision making.

In recent years more courses are using the MACSIM system as a base for training and simulation. In the Stockholm Region the Trauma and Disaster Course (TKS) uses MACSIM for training in Triage and treatment and as simulation tool for the exercises. In the Gothenburg region the Preparedness and Disaster course (BOK) uses the MACSIM for education, training and simulation.

MACSIM has continued to provide researchers and developers with a powerful and effective research tool in triage and surge capacity testing. Read more under publications.