Nurses Use Makerspace To Invent Custom Health Care Solutions (hackaday.com) 50
New submitter wd5gnr writes: University of Texas Medical Branch and an MIT initiative have joined forces to create the first maker space in a hospital. Often nurses see things that would make their jobs easier or a patient's care better and now they can create custom solutions to those problems. They aim to spread this to other hospitals and form a community of medical makers.
Maker-Space in Hospital? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Maker-Space in Hospital? (Score:4, Funny)
Nothing patient related I hope (Score:2)
Lawyers would have a field day with this.
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Not really. Many patients have individual problems, like ulcers, sores or burns in particular places. Existing dressings and padding don't always fit perfectly or comfortably, especially around high pressure areas like the feet - the dressing must take the weight off the wound, but yet redistribute the weight so that it doesn't cut off circulation by pressing in elsewhere. So it takes a lot of trial and error to get the bandages wrapped comfortably.
Re:Nothing patient related I hope (Score:4, Informative)
Lawyers would have a field day with this.
I know that this is /. but if you read TFA you'd see that this is already covered.
I asked Young about the ramifications of making what amounts to medical devices. She replied, “Hospitals already have the processes in place to do investigational studies, and these are treated just like those studies.”
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Yes, starting with copyright lawyers. As soon as anything in this sphere emerges that is useful, it will be copyrighted.
And because of that, there will be very real legal risks for a hospital that allows its staff to just print anything and use it. Not from irate patients but from copyright holders. So they will have to impose tight controls on what gets printed and by whom, or face copyright liabilities. The field is likely thick with copyright mines already.
As a result it's only to be expec
Really?... (Score:2)
You really think it's a good idea to use your amateur radio call sign as your Slashdot user name?
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This needs to be regulated! (Score:2)
I hope so (Score:2)
If you want to go guzzle snake oil in libertarian paradise go right ahead. I've got some lovely homeopathy that'll cure what ails you. Just $199.99 a dose.
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Over hill and over dale, our love shall ever fail.
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Having actually seen a fair number of nurses in action, I wouldn't trust any of them to actually "invent" anything. They generally need the soul stifling regulation and the somewhat military approach to procedure.
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yea and (Score:2)
when Nurse Betty, who has no design or engineering background, emails a widget to Bridget, who gets sued when the SLA widget shatters in someone's face.
Yes I think the medical device market is retarded in their regulations ... but they were originally put there for a reason
Not as efficient (Score:3)
Yes I think the medical device market is retarded in their regulations ... but they were originally put there for a reason
The problem with this position is that it's not very efficient.
The regulations have grown to mean "safety at any cost", which means that in many cases effective care has become a lower priority than perfect safety.
Many examples abound. I chatted with a researcher at Berman Gund who said that he had a cure for a specific genetic disease that affects about 250 people in America (and proportionally the rest of the world). He said that many researchers have promising treatments for these less common ailments, b
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People will always cut corners whenever given the option.
The reason it became "safety at any cost" is because if the more reasonable "safe when convenient to do so" becomes safe only when it doesn't impact profit by a single cent.
Yes it is a PITA, (I deal with it every day), but while the alternatives could improve 1% of cases, it would be abused to reduce quality on the other 99%.
So net positive, even when it creates some glaringly stupid situations.
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On the other hand, slowing down a cure by a few years might very well kill more through inaction than all the lives saved due to caution so far.
What is an annual lag of, say, an unrealistically small 2% worth, compounded annually for 70 years? M8llions of lives? Tens of millions?
Caution only saves some over lawsuits and disconfirming field results. However, it looks a lot better in front of a camera.
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During my late wife's final stay in the hospital she had to have what is called an NG (Nasal Gastrointestinal) tube inserted through her nose which kept her stomach pumped since peristalsis had shut down for he
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"It's like the god damned Spanish Inquisition."
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I believe that there is/was a magnifying sleeve for those little tiny insulin syringes that a nurse invented so the scale on the syringe could be read easier, resulting in more precise insulin dosing...
Nothing new (Score:3)
The medical profession has been doing this for years. Physicians, surgeons, nurses and physical therapists have been making their own tools and gear to help their patients since at least the early '80s. I worked with an orthopedic surgeon, her nurse and a physical therapist back then who were creating stuff in a workshop, with lathes, hammers, molds, cork, leather, plaster, plastic and steel. They made orthotics, braces, instruments, even silastic implants. Stuff patients could take home and use to make their lives easier.
Rehabilitation medicine has been a "maker space" before makers were cool. Or thought they were cool.
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They had a couple of MASH episodes along these lines.
That's a 70s show about what went on in the 50s.
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I recall the vascular clamp episode, was there another?
Probably the best just in time inventors (Score:1)
I like how the comments on this article are about, "Oh, no, this shit can't happen, because there will be too many problems."
I'd like to see you say that when you're on a gurney bleeding your guts out and some "nurse" has to fashion a quick invention to save your shitty attitude of a life. Just so you can sue her.
Doctors and nurses, for centuries, have been doing just this sort of thing: finding A way, ANY WAY, to save a life. Ncessity, the true mother of invention, and in a hyper critical time of do or die
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And I will be honestly surprised when an AC has something useful to contribute to the conversation.
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I may come from the East Coast, but everyone knows, you don't mess with Texas. :)
Nurses are the backbone of healthcare. (Score:1)
Physicians may dictate the parameters and protocols, but it is nurses who care for you minute by minute.
Disappointing mis-read (Score:2)