Open Source Medical Device

More general treatment of the topic, and not the particular initiative below, at [[Open Source Medical Devices]

Description

Please note: the singular, Open Source Medical Device, refers to one specific project

Discussion

From the Economist's Technology Quarterly:

"Equally ambitious is the Open Source Medical Device initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two medical physicists, Rock Mackie and Surendra Prajapati, are designing a machine to combine radiotherapy with high resolution computed tomography (CT) and positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning. Their aim is to supply, at zero cost, everything necessary to build the device from scratch, including hardware specifications, source code, assembly instructions, suggested parts—and even recommendations on where to buy them and how much to pay. The machine should cost about a quarter as much as a commercial scanner, making it attractive in the developing world, says Dr Prajapati. “Existing devices are expensive both to buy and maintain,” he says, whereas the open-source model is more sustainable. “If you can build it yourself, you can fix it yourself when something breaks.” (http://www.economist.com/node/21556098)