AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Good Health & Well-being
KEYWORDS
DIY, Alternative thinking, Medical Innovation
COUNTRY
Netherlands
DESIGNED BY
Frank Kolkman - OpenSurgery
WEBSITE
http://www.opensurgery.net/index.html
OpenSurgery
Platform creating focus on open source DIY surgical robots
The OpenSurgery initiative investigates whether building DIY surgical robots, outside the scope of healthcare regulations, could plausibly provide an accessible alternative to the costly professional healthcare services worldwide. The project aims to provoke alternative thinking about medical innovation by challenging the socioeconomic frameworks healthcare currently operates within.
With a price tag of up to $2.000.000, surgical robots represent large capital investments. As such they fit in a type of market driven healthcare innovation that indirectly contributes to the overall rising medical expenditures.
There have been several attempts within the robotics community to come up with cheaper and more portable surgical robots. However the strict medical regulations complicate the road to the operating room. That's what OpenSurgery aims to do something about, by creating focus on the less expensive possibilities like the RAVEN II, which cost only 10% of the equivalent prof. machine.