Kenya

Background

In 2019, LFR International began a formal partnership with Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, located in Kakamega County, Kenya and the University of Michigan Center for Global Surgery. The goals of the partnership are twofold: firstly, LFR teams are working with MMUST to assess the status of prehospital trauma care on a national scale in order to determine the most effective way to meet Kenya’s trauma care needs. Secondly, in partnership with the University of Michigan, LFR is collaborating with MMUST to build the research capacity of its Department of Paramedical Sciences by teaching courses in scientific methods, data collection, and analysis to bolster collaborative research efforts. After completing our joint national assessment of emergency medical services, project partners aim to train a cohort of lay first responders to serve Kakamega county before expanding into Kenya’s 46 other counties.

In 2022, 86 volunteers were trained as trainers, preparing for a large scale deployment of the training of trainers (TOT) model. In 2023, these trainers assisted in the Deploying Emergency Bystander Internet Training (DEBIT) trial, training an additional 300 first responders to investigate the efficacy of in-person vs. online training. Future efforts will involve the scaling of online LFR training and the development of a Level-2 advanced curriculum in partnership with MMUST.

Metrics

• 715 PETCAT Surveys administered to healthcare providers in all 47 counties of Kenya

• 4,000+ hospital-terminating EMS incidents individually reviewed to evaluate national trauma capacity

• 27 MMUST Masters students completed our joint course in Medical Statistics in R

• 83 Trainers trained in TOT course

• 300 LFRs trained in DEBIT Trials

Local Partners

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Two manuscripts are currently under review from this program. Please check back soon to read our work once published.