A Minnesota firm backed by the Gates Basis is utilizing digital actuality to point out how vaccines save lives — from the Congo to school rooms throughout America. On World Polio Day, the crew behind this progressive expertise explains why
When Brian Skalak describes his work, he doesn’t discuss laptop code or digicam rigs. He talks about folks – the well being staff ferrying containers of fragile vaccines throughout flooded roads and rivers within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the communities ready in distant villages for cover from polio, and the decision-makers 1000’s of miles away who lastly perceive, by way of digital actuality, what it takes to achieve each baby.
Skalak is the director of engagement at REM5 STUDIOS, a Minnesota-based manufacturing firm that’s redefining how international well being tales are instructed. In partnership with the Gates Basis and different members of the International Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), his crew has developed a collection of immersive digital actuality (VR) experiences that carry viewers face-to-face with the realities of vaccine supply.
Their newest mission, Apporter La Vie – which means Delivering Life – takes audiences deep into the DRC, following frontline employee Kasongo as he transports vaccines by way of sweltering warmth, torrential rain, and lots of of kilometres of inland waterways. It’s a journey few outsiders ever see, but one which underpins the worldwide mission to eradicate polio and develop immunisation to all kids.
“What we’re attempting to do is shut the gap,” says Skalak. “We carry folks there to allow them to actually see what’s occurring and why it issues. When you’ve solely bought ten minutes to point out somebody what the frontline appears like, VR can create that emotional connection immediately.”
Apporter La Vie builds on the success of REM5’s earlier expertise, Polio’s Final Mile, which premiered in 2024 and went on to achieve greater than 11,000 international well being leaders, policymakers, and advocates at over 20 main occasions worldwide. Collectively, the 2 initiatives type an ongoing effort to make use of rising expertise as a bridge between the folks funding vaccine campaigns and people delivering them.
Filmed utilizing ultra-high-definition immersive cameras, the VR expertise permits the viewer to comply with Kasongo’s crew as they pack vaccine coolers, traverse washed-out roads and rivers, and navigate native customs of their effort to take care of the so-called “chilly chain” – the rigorously monitored refrigeration course of that retains vaccines viable.
REM5 STUDIOS have partnered with the Gates Basis and different members of the International Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to develop a collection of immersive digital actuality (VR) experiences that carry viewers face-to-face with the realities of vaccine supply
Within the headset, customers can go searching freely, hear the sounds of youngsters enjoying in distant villages, and watch well being staff balancing vaccine crates on small wood boats. “It’s about presence, not novelty,” says REM5’s CEO, Amir Berenjian. “You possibly can learn in regards to the polio eradication effort, or watch a video – however in VR, you are feeling it. You’re proper there beside the folks doing the work.”
The Gates Basis, one of many largest funders of vaccine initiatives worldwide, supported each Apporter La Vie and Polio’s Final Mile. Amber Zeddies, the muse’s Senior Programme Officer for Polio Advocacy and Communications, described the mission as “a robust storytelling instrument that restores urgency, proximity and human readability to a mission that can’t afford to be forgotten”.
The timing is essential. In america, public belief in vaccines has fallen sharply lately. Misinformation unfold throughout the pandemic has led to pockets of vaccine hesitancy that threaten not solely progress towards Covid-19 but additionally the safety provided by long-standing childhood immunisations.
VR isn’t nearly visuals – it’s about empathy. It helps folks hook up with tales they could in any other case by no means encounter
For Skalak, that makes the mission of Apporter La Vie extra related than ever. “In a world the place individuals are more and more skeptical of science, exhibiting the human impression of vaccines is significant,” he says. “While you see the faces of households within the Congo who stroll for hours simply to achieve a clinic, you perceive what’s at stake.”
Till now, REM5’s VR headsets have traveled primarily to international well being and coverage occasions – from the Rotary Worldwide Conference to the DRC Presidential Discussion board – the place they’ve launched 1000’s of first-time customers to immersive storytelling. In surveys, 90% of members reported an elevated dedication to immunisation after watching.
However the studio’s subsequent step is to carry that have nearer to dwelling. REM5 STUDIOS, with help from the Gates Basis, is now making the expertise accessible domestically within the US. Anybody with a headset can obtain a free app onto their machine and may expertise the worldwide battle towards preventable illnesses. Working in group teams, colleges and Rotary golf equipment will assist develop that attain.
“Individuals assume VR is only for gaming,” says Skalak. “However we’re utilizing it for one thing fully totally different. We’ve had grandmothers and six-year-olds strive it for the primary time, and each stroll away saying, ‘Now I get it’.”
The Apporter La Vie app is accessible free to anybody with a Meta Quest 2 or 3 headset, and the crew have just lately constructed it out natively for the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. They’re additionally working with educators to construct curriculum content material across the expertise, and in dialogue with science museums about potential reveals.
The response from audiences has been profound. At one Rotary conference, a polio survivor queued twice to expertise the VR journey, moved by its portrayal of the trouble that continues to guard others from the illness that modified his life. “These moments remind us why we do that,” says Skalak. “VR isn’t nearly visuals – it’s about empathy. It helps folks hook up with tales they could in any other case by no means encounter.”
The response from audiences has been profound. One polio survivor queued twice to expertise the VR journey, moved by its portrayal of the trouble that continues to guard others from the illness that modified his life
That empathy is translating into real-world impression. Saudi Arabia just lately pledged $500m to the worldwide polio eradication effort, and whereas such choices aren’t pushed by a single occasion, initiatives like Apporter La Vie play a component in sustaining consideration and galvanizing motion amongst policymakers and philanthropists.
REM5 is now exploring how the identical expertise could be utilized to different well being and humanitarian causes – from most cancers consciousness with the American Most cancers Society to storytelling for the Salvation Military. “It’s the subsequent technology of advocacy,” Skalak says. “If we are able to present folks what’s occurring, we are able to change how they really feel – and whenever you change how folks really feel, you may change what they do.”
In a time when public debate round science and well being has change into polarised, REM5’s method affords one thing quietly radical: a strategy to see, reasonably than be instructed. The landscapes could also be digital, however the impression is actual.
For Skalak, it’s about harnessing expertise to remind us of our shared humanity. “All of us need wholesome children, robust communities, and a good shot at life,” he says. “If a headset can assist somebody perceive that vaccines are a part of that story, then it’s finished its job.”
Pictures by REM5 Studios
