Open Source Medical Supplies (OSMS) was formed in March 2020 to research and disseminate open source plans for medical supplies used to treat and reduce the spread of COVID-19 that can be fabricated locally. Additionally, Open Source Medical Supplies supports, mentors, and guides local communities as they self-organize hospital systems, essential services, professional fabricators, makerspaces, and local governments into resilient, self-supporting supply units.
In its first two weeks of operation, Open Source Medical Supplies helped organize 62,000 people all over the world in its Facebook group, supplied plans that volunteers turned into 280,000 medical supply items all over the world, produced an 80+ page long Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supply Guide, and released a COVID-19 Local Response Guide that helped local organizers form 95 local chapters all over the world.
Open Source Medical Supplies teamed up with RESOLVE, Schmidt Futures, Toyota Research Institute, and private donors to stand up a full-time team to help lead a global, distributed manufacturing response to COVID-19. OSMS collaborates with hospitals, non-profit institutions, governments, professional fabricators and makerspaces all over the world to help direct local fabrication response.
COVID19 is currently spreading exponentially, in a mostly unchecked fashion, throughout the world. Infection doubling rates are as high as 2-3 days. Under simplistic models, such unchecked growth means the disease infects most of the world in months. Current statistics indicate that 15-20% of people who get it requires hospitalization for respiratory failure for multiple weeks and often need intense healthcare from medical professionals who are at severe risk of treating these highly infectious patients. If infections proceed at their current pace across the globe, we will not have enough supplies like ventilators, respirators, PPE, etc. to meet demand.
This group is being formed to evaluate, design, validate, and source the fabrication of open-source emergency medical supplies around the world, given a variety of local supply conditions.
About 陳加恩
The Open-Source Medical Supplies-Taiwan (OSMS-Taiwan) Group member and also the researcher of the Medical 3D Printing Center from National Defense Medical Center Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.