The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) Netherlands, through its Global Initiative, is working to improve surgery outcomes in Kenya by fostering partnerships that enhance access to safe and affordable surgical care.
In collaboration with organizations such as Unifix Care, and Kenyan institutions like Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), the University of Nairobi (UoN), and Kenyatta University (KU), this Dutch-led effort focuses on building capacity and providing innovative solutions to address critical healthcare challenges in the region.
The initiative aims to develop innovative surgical technologies and systems, including portable and affordable surgical equipment, improved training for healthcare professionals, and research into context-appropriate surgical interventions. By leveraging expertise from both the Netherlands and Kenya, the program aims to bridge the gap in access to life-saving surgical care for Kenyans, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
Kenya’s healthcare system, like many in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), struggles with insufficient resources, leading to limited access to critical surgical care.
The collaboration focuses on harnessing science and technology to create practical, sustainable solutions for low-resource settings, with the goal of reducing the high number of preventable surgical complications and deaths.
Speaking to Kenyan journalists on the TU Delft campus, Prof. Jenny Dankelman, program Lead for the ‘Surgery for All’ program within TU Delft Global Initiative, stressed on the urgent need for safe surgery.
“Over 2 billion people have no access to surgery at all,” she stated. “This lack of safe surgery worldwide mostly affects countries in Africa. That’s why we are so keen to collaborate with partners on the continent. We believe we can make a large impact using the knowledge that we already have here in the Netherlands.”
More than 5 billion people worldwide lack access to safe and affordable surgical care, this is according to the world health organization (WHO). This issue particularly plagues Low and middle income countries (LMICs) where the healthcare systems often struggle with inadequate resources, resulting in preventable complications and fatalities.
According to Claire Hallewas, Managing Director of TU Delft Global Initiative, explained that the program was created to develop health solutions for low-resource settings through collaboration, using science and technology.
“TU Delft Global Initiative was created ten years ago because at a certain point we thought we should focus on the global societal challenges that we face right here and now, not only in the far future.” Hallewas said. “Instead of just creating these kind of state-of-the-art technologies that may not always be practical in real-world settings, we still focus on fundamental research, but also aim to address these global challenges,”
Unifix Care’s Role
Unifix Care, a company born out of TU Delft are a surgical instrument supplier based in the Netherlands, focused on improving healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa.
They currently operate in Kenya, Uganda, and Sierra Leone by providing affordable, safe, and sustainable surgical instruments to countries like Kenya and Uganda, this initiative is transforming the quality of surgery in the region.
Their goal is simple but impactful ensure that everyone, regardless of location, has access to safe surgical care.
Unifix Care’s co-founder and CEO Ivan Eikelenboom shared that before entering the African market, the company conducted extensive research.
“When we visited hospitals in Kenya and Uganda we found out that many surgical facilities lack essential critical tools due to limited access to safe surgical instruments. The safety and durability of these instruments are not up to standard in many of the clinics and hospitals we visited. As a result, basic surgical procedures can become incredibly dangerous for patients. This needs to change.”
Unifix Care aims to tackle this problem by developing and distributing high-quality, affordable surgical instruments. “We provide safe and sustainable surgical instruments to wholesalers and hospitals in Kenya and Uganda. Through leveraging our research and manufacturing expertise from TU Delft, we’re able to create surgical tools that are more than three times as durable as our local competitors, while remaining in the same price category,” Ivaan continues.
The Unifix Care approach involves extensive research that engages the local hospitals, this is to ensure sustainability of equipment that fits a hospitals specific needs. The result is a product that not only meets international safety standards but is also suited to the unique challenges faced by African hospitals.
“We talked to hospital staff, asking them what they believe makes a good surgical instrument, and why the ones they have aren’t sufficient. We took these insights back to our manufacturing process, optimizing the blueprint to meet the needs of the healthcare workers in the field.”
Ivaan explained, “We developed a method to objectively test the quality and durability of our instruments before they even reach the hospitals. Each batch is thoroughly tested to ensure that they meet the standards that patients in Kenya and Uganda deserve.”
By combining expertise, research, and a deep understanding of the local healthcare challenges in Africa, this initiative is paving the way for safer surgical procedures in the region. One of their next big focuses is laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive approach that requires both advanced equipment and specialized training.
Professor Jenny Dankelman explains, “Laparoscopic surgery involves small incisions- for example the abdomen, this way the patient can recover quickly, but this is a complex way of providing surgery that also require complex equipment and this is expertise we already have here in our labs so we are trying to tailor it towards providing surgery in the continent.”
The focus is on healthcare innovation is not just on technology but developing durable tools that work in low resource settings, with this the initiative has the potential to transform surgery outcomes in Kenya and other low and middle income countries.
