LIFE: Life-saving Instruction for Emergencies – smartphone app

The LIFE project puts effective training into the hands of any healthcare worker with a smartphone. Designed by a team of experts from Nairobi and Oxford including clinicians, medical educators, and developers, 3D simulated scenarios provide realistic, engaging opportunities to practice and learn. The ambition is to make high-quality, up-to-date training resources available to healthcare professionals working for patients in even the remotest environments. Learn how to manage medical emergencies in this exciting 3D simulation training app for healthcare professionals. Navigate around a virtual reality hospital, find the equipment you need and quiz yourself with interactive quizzes, multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and perform simulated procedures.


LIFE (Life-saving Instruction for Emergencies) is a new smartphone and virtual reality (VR) medical simulation training platform for teaching healthcare workers in Africa and low-resource settings how to save lives using a fun and challenging 3D game. LIFE allows nurses, doctors, medical students, trainees and healthcare workers who want to learn key resus skills on their own smartphones, to enter a realistic 3D hospital environment using the latest game-engine technology to try out their skills on simulated patients.

LIFE has been developed by the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at Oxford University and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Nairobi, Kenya.

LIFE won the Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge for Development (sponsored by USAID, DFID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NORAD, Grand Challenges Canada and KOICA).

The LIFE platform also won the World Economic Forum (WEF) VR for Impact competition sponsored by HTC (makers of the VIVE Virtual Reality (VR) headset). VR for Impact is a worldwide competition that supports VR applications that target the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health is a world leading Centre within the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, comprised of research groups who are permanently based in Africa and Asia as well as across two sites in Oxford. Our research ranges from clinical studies to behavioural sciences, with capacity building integral to all of our activities.

The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme is a world renowned health research unit of excellence. The programme was formed in 1989 when the Kenya Medical Research Institute formed a partnership with the Wellcome Trust and the University of Oxford. The Programme has over the last 26 years grown from a small group of 12 to a state of the art facility hosting over 100 research scientists and 700 support staff working across Kenya, Uganda and the region. We have over the years excelled in use of novel ideas working with local community’s to achieve better health for Africa while also developing African scientific leaders.

LIFE partners include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International, the Kenya Paediatric Association, HTC, University of Washington, Indiana University, HTC, Laerdal Global Health, USAID, DFID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.


Developer: Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at Oxford University and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme

Developed: 2018 – Ongoing

Website: https://oxlifeproject.org

Contact: admin@oxlifeproject.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oxlifeproject

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.ac.ox.NDM.LIFE

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/life-life-saving-instructions/id1533228705

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwC7ljvh4CQ