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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.
Of course the party you either fail to appreciate, or dont want to mention is that the regulations are strongly supported by the incumbents.
It created a very artificially high gateway to entry for competitors, while the cost of maintaining it is well covered for the current manufacturers
who use it as a way to charge artificially high profit margins in the name of 'safety'. Many of the regulatory requirements have been actively
created BY the manufacturers..
This is of course how almost all of the medical industry operates, certainly not just the manufacturers.
The natural reaction to this is of course a black market in affordable 'medicine' for people who just cannot afford to take that ride. Unfortunately
the US has just taken the opposite tack by trying to 'spread the load' instead, continuing to fuel its insane medical inefficiencies, and to continue
to maximise profitability for medical related companies. What a surprise.
If you really think that top quality medicine costs that much, then I suggest you visit South Korea... Their private medical services are very high
grade, and cost much, much less. Their fault rates are also lower..
The fact is that a lot of diagnosis (and other) equipment is cheap to make these days, and is not directly a safety threat to patients. The medical
system however does not want large price drops in one area, as they are worried at all levels that it may tip the scales and their own gravy trains
may get tipped..