When people ask me about the short term application of 3D printing, first I tell them about metal and plastic industrial prototyping and manufacturing and, when they say “what about something I could directly benefit from”, the first applications that come to mind are medical ones. The best thing about the biomedical field is that 3D printing makes it possible to not just benefit from, but also to contribute to the development of affordable biomedical solutions. Which is what the Open BioMedical (OBM) Initiative is about.
The project was started by a few members in April 2014. They began sharing information and discussing which could be the first biomedical products they could work on. Soon the number of members tripled, and, as it continued to grow globally, they started development of their first project, the First Hand. The Open BioMedical online platform was then created to makes it easier for everyone to collaborate and co-create in spite of distance and time differences. Now it wants to further unite people and new contributors towards a common goal.
The most urgent objective of OBM is to contribute to bring affordable prosthetic limbs to the over 30 million people who need them and in particular to the 80% of these people who cannot afford them. Along the same lines OBM also wants to develop, build and distribute biomedical devices to more than 30 thousand hospitals that do not currently have adequate supplies, thus helping the over one billion people in developing countries and the 100 million in industrialized countries who cannot afford to buy even basic biomedical devices such as microscopes, electrocardiograph and even hospital management software.
In the open source community the term competition assumes totally different implications. Other parallel projects such as e-NABLE, Not Impossible’s Project Daniel, Robohand are seen as a resource or an inspiration and a partner toward a common objective. As the team continues to work on the First Hand and on the newer Myo Hand myoelectric prosthesis, they are asking anyone who wants to contribute to join, whether just to request a device or by proving a 3D printer and 3D printing knowledge, or simply to help in raising awareness on OBM.
Sharebot, Italy’s leading FFF 3D printer manufacturer (currently working on development of DLP and SLS solutions as well) has just become one of the main contributors to the project, by providing its Sharebot NG 3D prosumer 3D printers and all the technical support necessary. Sharebot and OBM will now undertake a common path in communicating this and other collective initiatives, while sharing knowledge and know how to develop new health-centered solutions that can improve the quality of life and, through the open source sharing of information and data, establish new working models that can be exported to many other fields as well. Dealing a lot of people everywhere a better hand.
