Key enabling design and manufacturing technologies for open-source medical devices

Open-source medical devices (OSMDs) have emerged thanks to progresses in computer-aided design, simulation, and manufacturing (CAD-CAE-CAM) resources, to advances in manufacturing technologies, including the advent of flexible production systems and additive manufacturing, and to improvements in medical imaging technologies and in related processing software. All these parallel innovations enable the personalization of medical devices and their affordable and rapid manufacturing, in many cases employing sustainable tool-less approaches. They also make the design and production of complex-shaped geometries, like those required in many cases for interacting with the human body, technically and economically viable. This lesson covers the more relevant technologies and methods for personalizing OSMDs. Different case studies help to illustrate the design workflow.