Meet Terek Lubani - The doctor who initiated the development of cheap and vital medical equipment for the Gaza Strip.
The long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine has led to the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and drinking water and electricity are rare. Due to the siege of Gaza, basic goods, including medical supplies, do not enter the zone, and residents are forced to find new means of supply.
Dr. Terek Lubani is turning to 3D printing as a technology with great potential to create low-cost, high-volume medical equipment to help his patients. Dr. Lubb's stethoscope costs only 30 cents and works better than the traditional $200 equivalent. He was prompted to do so by a series of particularly fierce attacks by Israel in 2012, when he and his colleagues had to put their ear to a patient's chest to determine if the patient was breathing.
Terek Lubani launched
the Glia project , whose goal is to provide the Gaza Strip, and especially the hospital where he has been working for several years, with medical supplies and materials. He has designed a number of medical replacements for the originals such as a loom for weaving gauze, an otoscope for examining the ear, a stethoscope as well as many others that he has published on the open platform Github.
Dr. Lubani is self-financing the design of the device in the amount of 10,000 euros, and he is confident that he will soon receive permission for commercial use worldwide. We're on track to receive a Medical Device Establishment License (MDEL) from Health Canada," he told WIRED.
The next couple of developments at Gila are the 3D printing of a blood oxygen measuring device, as well as an electrocardiography machine and a hemodialysis machine.
In his separate
EmpowerGAZA project, funded through the Indiegogo platform, dr. Lubani hopes to help build a sustainable solar energy collection system via solar panels on top of a Gaza hospital to ensure a stable electricity supply despite military attacks.
