The End Postpartum Haemorrhage Initiative, based in the University of Nairobi's Department of Human Anatomy and Medical Physiology, is using virtual reality headsets to retrain practising clinicians in managing postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), the leading cause of maternal death in Kenya. About 35 per cent of Kenya's pregnancy-related maternal deaths are caused by PPH and a further 22 per cent by preeclampsia; the training modules cover both.
Trainees wear a headset branded VRiMs and use a hand controller to work through pre-recorded three-dimensional recordings of real operations, filmed in working theatres from multiple camera angles with the operating surgeon narrating each step. Viewers can look around the theatre and zoom in on the surgical field. A second, interactive component lets trainees select virtual instruments and rehearse procedures they may never have performed, such as identifying a tear, placing stitches and confirming the bleeding has stopped. The headset enforces a physical boundary and ends the session if the user steps outside it.
Professor Moses Obimbo, chairperson of the department and a lead of the initiative, compares the approach to aviation simulator training, arguing that emergency skills decay when clinicians are not regularly exposed to them. Modules have been curated for the range of providers who handle maternal emergencies in Africa, from community health promoters and midwives to medical officers and consultant gynaecologists, and build up to a final module on team leadership.
The content is delivered through a new PPH School, structured as a Continuing Professional Development course and developed with a UK partner specialising in immersive surgical education. Basic Obstetric Protocols agreed with the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society have been folded into the curriculum. Because the modules travel with the headset, the initiative expects to reach peripheral centres that have no simulation laboratory of their own. The Standard reported that the school's inaugural intake comprised 40 medical trainees drawn from institutions across Kenya, joining free of charge while the founders seek funding.
Kenya's Ministry of Health describes the programme as a pilot and has called for local implementation research to build an evidence base before the approach is folded into national Continuing Professional Development mechanisms.
