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The Next Generation of Medical Tools May Be Home-brewed
An anonymous reader writes: In the Little Devices Lab at MIT, Jose Gomez-Marquez builds medical tools using a DIY mindset. He's designing cheap alternatives to existing hospital equipment to help spread high-quality medical care around the world. Gomez-Marquez is at the forefront of a large and often-unrecognized group of DIY medical tool builders. Together they are challenging the idea that staying healthy requires extraordinarily expensive, sophisticated equipment built by massive corporations. Harnessing this inventive energy, he argues, could improve the health of thousands of people around the world.
Hi! Medical equipment designer here for several companies. He's partially right. It often doesn't take expensive equipment. Soap is a good example. And EMT's can do wonders with a 14ga needle.
However, to sell equipment in the USA and many other countries takes extraordinary amounts of validation testing. Lot's of documentation and proof. I won't even bother with the list, but check out CFR 21 for a taste. That extra work takes time and money. And that's where the first layer of expense comes from in our medical system.
If you're willing to dump the safety requirements corporations must follow, you can do things a lot cheaper.