NSF POSE: Phase 2: Open Healthware Open-Source Ecosystem (OSE)

Open Source Hardware Association, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Open-source hardware has been instrumental in enabling rapid response and preventing supply chain issues in critical moments. For example, the distributed manufacturing of open-source face shields assisted in personal protective equipment production during the COVID-19 pandemic. Open-source hardware can also enable low-income or low-access populations to build and customize vital medical equipment and spur innovation. Sharing designs makes it possible for others to customize and augment the device for various populations with health augmentation needs. The Open-Source Hardware Association leadership has identified key needs for the open-source health hardware community: a central database where inventors, makers, users, researchers, and manufacturers register and search for designs; quality assurance and testing of designs; and greater support for material sourcing, vetting, and substitution. To address these needs, the Open-Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) seeks to provide an Open Healthware Open-Source Ecosystem (OSE). In the first year, OSHWA will focus on facilitating an agreement for the standardization of a health-related certification, developing on-ramps for the health-related hardware community to learn about open hardware, and building educational campaigns and workshops around the documentation needed for the new health-specific certification. In the second year, OSHWA will focus on issues around quality assurance and shared testing protocols, which are critical for the adoption of health hardware outside of emergency use authorization circumstances. This Open Healthware OSE may bring together the emerging open-source health hardware community and encourage the shared development and advancement of health-related hardware designs. This initiative will centralize disparate efforts in the community to collect and give access to health hardware designs, provide guidance for licensing and documentation to enable adoption and replicability, and provide testing and quality assurance for the source. The OSHWA certification program (certification.oshwa.org) has independently verified and certified over two thousand pieces of open-source hardware in over 50 countries. OSHWA's communal open-source hardware definition (oshwa.org/definition) is used by tens of thousands of projects, has been viewed over one million times, and is the de-facto standard for open-source hardware. OSHWA is advised by community members from non-profit industries, for-profit industries, and academia. The development and maturation of the open health hardware community will ultimately multiply the availability and utility of hardware designs for health protection, measurement, diagnoses, and treatment. Open-source hardware will increase innovation in the health sector, provide alternative resources during pandemics and supply-chain shortages, and increase access to health hardware. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.