The Virtual Medical Trainer (VMET) combines multimedia sound and graphics with physiological engines, medical-procedures databases, and 3-D patients to produce an interactive environment that can mimic the cognitive pre-hospital assessment and care demands of a real emergency. VMET uses a reconfigurable component software and training framework that allows a uniform user interface, ease of increasing training complexity, and expansion of the software components. VMET provides an opportunity to experience a range of trauma scenarios prior to the challenge of an actual trauma situation.