FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
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Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#2Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#3Would love to see more details on this. I've checked the one (and only) blog entry from the creator... not much there either. Call me a skeptic, but shouldn't there be more detail when people are being asked to help fund this.
Lovely idea for a product though, and definitely doable with todays off the shelf tech.
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#4Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
I think Healthcare device experimentation will move outside OECD, just because of the high-safety and high-precision requirements.
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#5Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
Would you rather third world countries have no medicine than medicine that doesn't check all the FDA's (mostly pointless) little boxes?
And yes, medical equipment in the US is absurdly overpriced due to extreme overregulation.
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#6I'm not the author, but I'm friends with the guy who made this. I don't think the github repo is public yet, but he said he's planning on making it public soon after a bit of cleanup. And yes, this is real hardware that works. Reece has been working on this for a long time, and I'm glad to see it on HN!
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#7Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
Hey adrianN, creator of the project here. "For use in developing world environments" means built to perform to hospital specifications but without the cost markup or over-the-top complexity of a developed world piece of equipment. I've spent about four months working in hospitals in Rwanda and Nepal fixing donated "developed world" medical devices, and the fact of the matter is that 35% break within a year of donation and 95% within 5 years. This project is built so that it is easily maintainable, easily repairable, works out-of-the-box, and is at a price point that developing world hospitals can afford to purchase with their budgets (~200-300 USD, according to my sources in Rwanda). Also, most developing world hospitals have a very high nurse turnover rate, making it critical to make the device simple enough to be used by staff who haven't been trained yet.
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#8Would love to see more details on this. I've checked the one (and only) blog entry from the creator... not much there either. Call me a skeptic, but shouldn't there be more detail when people are being asked to help fund this. Lovely idea for a product though, and definitely doable with todays off the shelf tech.
Hey! Sorry about the lack of material on the blog, I set it up about last week so I haven't had a chance to post too much yet. The code for the project is open source, hosted at https://github.com/ReeceStevens/patient-monitor. Look for a new blog post coming up this week with a lot more background about the project. I also have blogged about my work in developing world hospitals that led up to this project; that info is at http://www.reecestevens.svbtle.com.
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#9Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
Hey adrianN, creator of the project here. "For use in developing world environments" means built to perform to hospital specifications but without the cost markup or over-the-top complexity of a developed world piece of equipment. I've spent about four months working in hospitals in Rwanda and Nepal fixing donated "developed world" medical devices, and the fact of the matter is that 35% break within a year of donatio…
Will be making a blog post at reecestevens.me/blog about this very soon (within the week), so check back around Friday and I'll be able to give you a more fleshed-out response (with pictures!)
Re: FreePulse Patient Monitor a low-cost patient monitor for use in developing world
#10Does "for use in developing world" mean "isn't compliant with regulations in developed countries", or why isn't a cheaper monitor also interesting for eg the US?
Would you rather third world countries have no medicine than medicine that doesn't check all the FDA's (mostly pointless) little boxes? And yes, medical equipment in the US is absurdly overpriced due to extreme overregulation.
Truth. Also, with the way insurance works here, it's actually more cost effective for companies to make a more expensive device. If you're selling for a US market, you lose money by making your prices competitive