What is the name of your organization?
University of California San Francisco
What is the name of your solution?
SERVE Uganda
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
SERVE aims to train HIV providers in Uganda with virtual reality, to help improve empathy towards their clients and reduce stigma.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Kampala, Uganda
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Uganda
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Our project addresses stigma and discrimination faced by people with HIV (PWH) in Uganda, particularly key populations (KPs) such as sexual and gender minorities, sex workers, and people who inject drugs. Stigma remains a major barrier to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets by reducing access to testing, treatment, and viral suppression.
In Uganda, where 1.2 million people live with HIV, stigma—especially from healthcare providers—leads to delayed care, loss to follow-up, and poor treatment adherence. This impacts clinical outcomes such as viral load and CD4 counts, particularly for marginalized groups.
We propose adapting virtual reality (VR) technology to immerse providers in the experiences of PWH. Evidence shows VR can enhance empathy and reduce bias by helping providers understand patient perspectives. This intervention builds on strategies like Uganda’s Most At Risk Populations Initiative (MARPI) and similar efforts in South Africa and Kenya that have successfully reduced provider stigma.
By co-developing VR content rooted in local experiences, we aim to foster empathy, reduce stigma in clinical settings, and improve care for KPs. Our project leverages innovative technology and existing infrastructure to help create stigma-free environments—an essential step toward equitable HIV care and reaching global prevention and treatment goals.
What is your solution?
Our solution is a Virtual Reality (VR) training program designed to reduce stigma among healthcare providers (HCPs) by building empathy toward people living with HIV (PWH), especially key populations (KPs) such as sex workers and sexual and gender minorities. The training uses immersive VR scenarios that place providers in the shoes of patients facing stigma in clinical settings.
Through realistic, first-person VR experiences—such as being ignored, judged, or mistreated by medical staff—HCPs experience what it feels like to be a marginalized patient. This builds empathy and prompts self-reflection on how their actions may impact care. The technology is portable, low-cost VR hardware paired with custom-developed scenarios tailored to Uganda’s context.
To measure impact, we deploy “mystery clients”—trained individuals who simulate patient visits before and after the VR training. Their interactions with HCPs are recorded and analyzed using natural language processing (NLP) to detect changes in communication, empathy, and stigma-related language.
By identifying and changing provider behavior, the solution improves quality of HIV care and supports better patient outcomes. It is scalable, evidence-based, and rooted in local experiences. This project builds on UCSF’s successful VR empathy training model and adapts it for HIV care in Uganda.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Meeting the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets in Uganda requires urgently addressing stigma, especially against key populations (KPs) at risk for or living with HIV. Stigma remains a major barrier to HIV testing, treatment initiation, and sustained viral suppression, despite longstanding recognition of its harmful role in the HIV response. In Uganda, stigma is particularly acute among men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSWs), and adolescent girls. Recent legislation that criminalizes sexual minorities and sex work is likely to worsen stigma and discrimination, exacerbating delays in care-seeking, treatment interruptions, and poor adherence among these groups. To meet global HIV goals, we must prioritize interventions that reduce stigma across health systems. This project will develop a scalable training tool that puts health providers in the shoes of their clients, fostering empathy and reducing enacted stigma in clinical settings. By addressing provider attitudes and behaviors, this tool has the potential to improve the quality of care for marginalized populations and support better engagement across the HIV care cascade. Once developed and tested in Uganda, the intervention could be adapted and scaled to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, helping to reduce health disparities and advance HIV epidemic control.
