Remember when the invention of high-quality printers, Adobe Postscript, and design software brought publishing to the desktop? No longer did you need to rely on experts to design your newsletters, presentations, and brochures. Individuals were empowered to do more on their own in their offices.
That thought came to mind when I read about what’s happening at the Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. They’ve created the first “makerspace” in the country for care providers. Called the MakerHealth™ Space at UTMB in John Sealy Hospital, their announcement said it would allow nurses, doctors, and other medical staff to develop their ideas for improving healthcare.
They went on to say that, “Over the past two years, MakerNurse has uncovered resourceful nurses across the country who are hacking the supply closet and using everyday materials to improve upon and create new tools and devices that lead to better ways of caring for patients. Cough pillows made out of hospital blankets wrapped in medical tape, tactile patient call buttons using tongue depressors and pieces of silk—these are just some of the simple fixes made by nurses that ensure patient comfort and safety.”
From my years in consumer product development, I know some of the best ideas come, not from engineers or large companies, but from those individuals performing day-to-day tasks who often create new ways to do their job. These people have unique insights and a passion to solve a problem or do something better, and see it differently than others. But they’re rarely versed in the area of product development and shepherding their ideas all the way to the market.
Following the conventional product development route is not something most of these individuals can afford to get into without giving up their jobs and needing a huge amount of capital. The process is long, arduous and expensive, and few succeed. I’ve come across too many would-be inventors who ploughed their life savings into getting a patent or who were taken to the cleaners by one of the fraudulent invention submission companies. But perhaps this is all changing, as exemplified by MakerNurse.
New technology over the past few decades has brought us a long way towards simplifying the design and building of products. In electronics, we’ve gone from discrete components to integrated circuits to chips that contain an array of capabilities. We even have chips containing a complete computer or phone. That makes it easier for the less experienced to develop products by assembling these building blocks like Legos.
In mechanics, 3D printing equipment is simplifying building physical parts. No longer do you need to use a model maker or create costly tooling to build mechanical parts.
3D printers, design software, and other tools are moving from being used by experts to almost anyone, just as occurred in the days of desktop publishing. As a result, opportunity opens up for those with little product development experience.
As for funding these ideas, there’s even a replacement for the professional investor, using crowdfunding (such as Kickstarter) where which people with common interests band together to fund the development of a product.
But we still have a long way to go. Current capabilities limit the complexity of the products that can be done and I can’t imagine ever eliminating the need for talented designers, engineers, and manufacturers and, of course, professional investors. Just as graphic designers are still needed to create professional content, we still need product development and manufacturing experts for most products.
Like most things in high tech, desktop product development will likely take a long time to become common practice. But this trend towards putting creative power into more people’s hands is coming. That has to be better for the world.
Great website. Lots of useful information here. I look forward to the continuation.
But wanna say that this really is quite helpful , Thanks for taking your time to write this.
Hello techpinions.com owner, Your posts are always well-supported by research and data.
There is some nice and utilitarian information on this site.
To the techpinions.com administrator, Great content!
We always follow your beautiful content I look forward to the continuation.
Dear techpinions.com admin, Your posts are always well-timed and relevant.
Hi techpinions.com owner, Your posts are always well-balanced and objective.
To the techpinions.com webmaster, You always provide great examples and real-world applications, thank you for your valuable contributions.
Hello techpinions.com administrator, Your posts are always well-received and appreciated.
Hello techpinions.com owner, Your posts are always well-supported by research and data.
Dear techpinions.com webmaster, Thanks for the post!
Great goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are
just too magnificent. I really like what you’ve acquired here,
really like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it.
You make it enjoyable and you still care for to keep it wise.
I can’t wait to read much more from you. This is really a great web site.
hey there and thank you for your information – I’ve definitely picked
up something new from right here. I did however expertise some technical
issues using this site, as I experienced to reload the
web site lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly.
I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I’m complaining,
but sluggish loading instances times will sometimes affect
your placement in google and could damage your high quality score if
ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding
this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much more of your respective intriguing content.
Ensure that you update this again soon.
Hey! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment
form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m
having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!
Hello! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing
several weeks of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to protect
against hackers?
This piece of writing will assist the internet users for setting
up new web site or even a blog from start to end.
Spot on with this write-up, I truly believe this site needs
far more attention. I’ll probably be back again to see more, thanks
for the info!