Abstract
Most medical technology is employed and accepted passively by patients and doctors who have little or no influence in its design or usability. Patients are not involved in the development of medical technology, which is undertaken behind closed doors and whose global impact is hindered by proprietary know-how and by costs. This has so far impeded equitable healthcare as most of the world does not have access to the technology or healthcare coverage. Understanding the relevance of international partnerships for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, feeling specially committed to the promotion of the Goal on “Good Health and Well-Being”, and convinced about the role that open-source biomedical engineering approaches may play in the future of medical technology, we commit ourselves, through the Kahawa Declaration, to enlighten the transformation of the biomedical engineering field, towards the democratization of medical technology as a key for achieving universal equitable health care. This paper presents the content of the Kahawa Declaration, which was signed in Nairobi in December 2017.
Highlights
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25), “...everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being... including food, clothing, housing and medical care...” (United Nations General Assembly, 1948); such rights should be deeply rooted in human nature and it is our duty making them true
Universal health care is still a dream far beyond reality, even if all United Nations Member States have agreed to pursue the achievement of universal health coverage by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.)
Future Given the call for action and its urgency, we propose the following immediate actions, as a foundation for rebuilding medical technology towards our mid- and long-term objectives:
Summary
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25), “...everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being... including food, clothing, housing and medical care...” (United Nations General Assembly, 1948); such rights should be deeply rooted in human nature and it is our duty making them true. Call for Action Collaborative Biomedical Design Methodologies for Global Health Concerns Collaboration is essential for successful engineering of complex projects; the biomedical engineering field stands out given the need for multidisciplinary teams capable of systematically addressing the development of medical devices considering medical, social, economic, technical, safety and regulatory issues.
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