someone just came into the xkcd chatroom trying to recruit for that open source medical equipment movement.
I have serious concerns about this because as someone with deep respect for engineering complexity, medical equipment scares the shit out of me.
I was taught to have a great deal of respect for engineering standards and regulations. I’m studying an engineering degree. I think that building codes, design standards and design theory handbooks are some of the most high value parts of engineering that serves the general public. It’s why you can trust that most buildings you go into won’t collapse on you, and why you can be sure that your prosthetic limbs won’t dig into your skin and cause an infection.
I have written about this before
When I see one of those "this person couldn't afford a wheelchair so a high school shop class built one for them" I think about how in 8 years that person might get nerve damage. Or fall down an ADA standard ramp.
Here’s the list of standards the FDA puts out for respirators. It’s actually pretty short, but testing each one of these takes ages, and a lot of expertise. No less than four of these are specifically about body-compatible materials for use in medical equipment. That’s not to mention the ergonomic, machine-compatibility and general safety requirements.
the vast majority of 3D printers are not suitable for medical equipment. They produce materials that are not only unsanitary right out the box, but also almost impossible to sanitize. They’re frangible, made of body-unsafe materials, liable to outgas or leach into the bloodstream. They provide ample porous surface for bacterial growth. Using 3D printed parts in place of injection moulded single use plastic will only occasionally help and, if you’re dealing with people with weakened immune systems, may actively hurt and do more damage than nothing.
there are lots of places where fast hacky solutions are a good idea. If you're trying to spring up a telecom network after a flood, throwing some routers together and putting everyone on one LAN is better than nothing.
Medicine is not like that. Large public works are not like that.
I just get mad when people are like "if this college student could make a prosthetic arm out of lego and clay, why don't we use that for everyone" is because we used to do this and we found out it's extremely bad for you.
<griffin mcelroy voice> The built environment is, a trust box, that I step into, and form a silent contract with whoever's name is on the design papers.
