On 22nd of June, the OpenLab MedTec at the BWKH hospital in Hamburg, Germany was officially launched. The collaborative project from PTB, BWKH and the HSU hosted the workshop right in the heart of the hospital. Great keynote speakers addressed challenges and opportunities of open-source medical hardware dealing with technical and regulatory issues of imaging devices. As part of the program a panel discussion and breakout session explored the opportunities of open source imaging both for high-ressource settings and low and middle income countries, from a research, industry and clinical perspective. As a physical example of open-source hardware, workshop participants could view and investigate a current prototype of the OSI² ONE MRI scanner.
In the second thematic session applications and regulatory pathways towards medical use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing technologies were explored. The evening concluded with a labtour through the “mini”-fablab within the hospital, which aims at providing an interface between medical personal at the hospital, local researchers, makers and the industry, as well as the open-source community worldwide. This provides a distinctive opportunity to investigate the concept of open-source for medical applications and the initial local impact it can create, followed by a subsequent step of disseminating these outcomes globally to amplify their effect.
Keynote lectures:
Imaging at the point of care: a paradigmatic change
Guy Frija, Paris Georges Pompidou European Hospital, Paris, France McMaster University of Ontario, Canada https://roccnroll.euramed.eu/
From open source development to medical product: echOpen ultrasound imaging
Mehdi Benchoufi, echOpen factory, Paris, France, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France https://www.echopen.org/
Medical Applications for Additive Manufacturing: An Overview
Cora Lüders-Theuerkauf, MGA Medical – Mobility goes Additive e.V., Berlin, Germany
https://mga-net.com/working-groups/medical-goes-additive/
3D printing technology for medical research and the clinic
Norbert Löwa, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany
More information on the OpenLab MedTec project:
OpenLab MedTec website: https://openlab.hamburg/de/openlabs/medtec/
Contact: Martin.Haeuer@ptb.de and Lukas.Winter@ptb.de
