Basic HTML Version
DR. DIY
MIT’s Jose Gomez-Marquez is devising
cheap, ingenious tools that could
revolutionize third-worldmedicine
For most tinkerers, the do-it-yourself
model is useful for everything from home
renovations and custom computers to
tricked-out cars and Lego sculptures. For
Jose Gomez-Marquez, a 2011 TED fellow
and program director of MIT’s Innovations
in International Health lab, the DIY ethos
is something to apply toward inexpensive
medical solutions—an inhalable measles
vaccine, a bike pump–powered nebulizer
for asthma patients—that can save lives in
developing countries.
According to conventional wisdom,
anything used by doctors requires years
of development and sackfuls of money
before it can be put into the field. But
where third-world regions are concerned,
all that cost and process can prove prohibi-
tive. “Ninety-five percent of the medical
devices sent to the developing world break,”
says Gomez-Marquez. “And sometimes
they get fixed and sometimes they don’t.”
If a medical centrifuge fails and doesn’t get
repaired, then tests for, say, malnutrition-
induced anemia won’t happen—which is
when something like Gomez-Marquez’s
manual toilet-plunger-with-tubes centri-
fuge comes in handy.
Gomez-Marquez knows from experience.
Growing up in Honduras, where many of
his family members were doctors, he spent
a lot of time in hospitals and not only
saw their machines breaking down, but
also witnessed the impromptu solutions
devised by medical staff. “In the developing
world, you’ll find a team of ‘MacGyver’
doctors,” says Gomez-Marquez, “but they’ll
never tell you about these rubber-band
solutions, because they’re embarrassed
about them.” Gomez-Marquez’s latest
project is, fi ingly, a toolkit that can
be used by medical personnel to create
makeshi equipment—kind of an Erector
set for medical devices.
Of course, Gomez-Marquez admits,
there are some areas where makeshi
won’t do the trick. At least not yet. “We’re
not anywhere close to doing any kind of
implantable thing, like a DIY pacemaker,”
he says, “but that doesn’t mean there aren’t
a boatload of medical devices still waiting
for simple solutions.”
JOSE GOMEZ-MARQUEZ
/
AGE
35
/
FROM
TEGUCIGALPA,
HONDURAS
/
LIVES IN
BOSTON
/
PREVIOUS GIG
INVESTMENT MARKETER AT INVESCO INSTITUTIONAL
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
/
JANUARY 2012
GUIDO VITTI
p072-079_HEM0112_techies.indd 79
05/1