CareFab Lab - Open Innovation

Caregivers constitute the largest part of the workforce in health and care systems. At the same time, they are typically the ones with the least access to technological means and the necessary digital knowhow. Yet the very people who are performing the day to day work of caregiving have a wealth of real life experience and knowledge that can be used to generate innovative ideas and practical solutions for improving the tools and conditions for their work – and thus the results.

The Care FabLab is an open community platform and mobile creative workshop in which the primary aim is the collaborative implementation of innovative ideas and projects for care through the use of digital fabrication methods. It is a network of creative caregivers and interested people with the common purpose of developing innovative solutions to improve daily patient care.

The Care FaLab provides the platform, tools and training with which to present new ideas and discuss them among the community, as well as the means to develop concepts for implementation and create prototypes. All of the information and content is freely available to the community and can be used by participants for their own projects.

On this platform, members can present their own ideas about projects, products or processes to improve care. Other members can then comment on those ideas to assess, augment or enhance them. Special virtual working groups can be created for interested members to join in order to work on particular projects. Based on these ideas, concepts can be developed and even implemented collectively. And it all takes place under the Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 3.0) and is thus freely available for all!

The mobile FabLab including the innovation workshop can be booked for hospital clinics, nursing schools, symposia and conferences. Participants will be guided and supported through processes of brainstorming and conception, all the way through to the resulting production using 3D-printers and other relevant digital tools. In this way, in just one or two unforgettably creative days, innovative solutions for caregivers by caregivers can be developed and realized!

http://fablab.care/

Interesting stuff

I & a friend have put some thought into care & self driving cars here (creative commons): https://cocreate.localmotors.com/RaMansell/healthy-movement/

I also have a couple of ideas regarding hygiene (shower mods), and had worked on a prototype of for electrical stimulation of muscle cells grown in a dish.

I’d love to discuss those things with someone who has a little more care background than I do (materials science).