MedTech has an accessibility problem.
Life-saving medicine, groundbreaking diagnostics technologies and much-needed lab equipment at the hands of profit-driven companies and oligopolies. What are the consequences of betting human health on proprietary markets, and what alternatives can open-source offer?
In this Open Hardware Talks, Lukas Winter (Open Source Imaging Initiative), Joe Knapper (OpenFlexure) and Anthony Di Franco (OpenInsulin) discuss challenges in healthcare accessibility, the benefits of open source approaches, and the potential future impact on medical technology, with examples from their succesful open-source projects - an OS low-field MRI system, an OS microscope and an OS protocol for insulin.
Open Source Imaging Initiative: Access to MRI systems remains highly unequal between regions, countries and the global north-south divide. Millions of people are denied diagnostic healthcare, and crucial research faces constant roadblocks, as scientists struggle to compare results between closed 'black box' systems.
OpenFlexure: Optical microscopes are an essential tool for scientific analysis and the detection of diseases in clinics, yet access to high-performance microscopy is limited in much of the world due to high up-front and maintenance costs and brittle supply chains.
OpenInsulin: Most of the world's insulin supply currently relies on the profit-driven business model of three companies. As a result, struggling economies remain undersupplied, and, when a drug is pulled from the market, patients are left shuffling to find alternatives, as seen with the removal of Levemir by Novo Nordisk from the US in 2023.
HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.
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