Accenture and Motive.io Develop Virtual Reality PPE Training for Healthcare Workers

Training developed in collaboration with UBC and BC Women’s Hospital

VANCOUVER and TORONTO; Sept. 22, 2020 – To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Motive.io have created life-like virtual reality training that teaches healthcare workers how to safely put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE). The training was developed in collaboration with University of British Columbia (UBC) and BC Women’s Hospital.

The need for ongoing PPE training is crucial, as recent studies have shown that nearly 40% of healthcare workers make errors when removing PPE, putting them at risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 or other viruses and bacteria.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge strain on healthcare professionals due to major changes in protective equipment requirements and other new protocols to manage COVID-positive patients,” said Dr. Roanne Preston, professor and head of the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the UBC Faculty of Medicine. “VR training has given our healthcare workers the opportunity to practice donning and doffing equipment safely and efficiently while conserving PPE supplies. Using virtual training has also helped us keep up with the latest provincial PPE guidelines.”

The PPE training was created by Accenture on Motive.io’s new immersive platform, which was designed for training professionals who don’t have a technical background. Training teams can easily create and maintain effective and engaging virtual reality- and augmented reality-based programs without specialized skills such as coding.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of being able to create, deliver and update effective training for healthcare and other frontline industries quickly,” said Sara Johnston, COO and co-Founder of Motive.io. “Our platform enables corporate training departments to quickly develop life-like 3D VR training scenarios, so organizations like BC Women’s Hospital have the ability to train staff in real time as guidelines evolve.”

Motive.io and Accenture’s learning and development team worked with UBC and BC Women’s Hospital to create the training in just eight weeks, with provincial updates to PPE protocols reflected in the training within days. Motive.io was also able to integrate training results with the BC Women’s Hospital learning hub, enabling training managers to track which employees completed the training, analyze testing scores, and determine where more training may be needed.

The project was supported by Accenture Social Innovators, an initiative focused on discovering and creating new technology solutions that have a positive impact on society.

Berkeley Warburton, a managing director at Accenture who led the project, said, “At Accenture, we are committed to using emerging technology to benefit people and communities. Motive.io’s intuitive platform enabled our learning and development team to create effective training modules quickly, and we are excited to add Motive.io to our global portfolio of capabilities.”

Michelle Nicholson, director of client relationships at Motive.io, said, “We are proud to work with Accenture and BC Women’s Hospital to help keep essential workers safe during these unprecedented times.”