Abstract

Today, six humans in ten have no access to medical care or do not adhere to it. Achieving collective health requires a mindset shift from competitive models creating dependency (medtech business) to solidarity-driven models building communal capacity (health commons).

Here, we present 15 initiatives created by open networks of interdisciplinary contributors (peer production); who iteratively co-create and document projects (agile development) that can be freely used, repaired, studied, reproduced and adapted by communities (libre and open-source licences) at fair prices or no cost. As resources are mutualized to avoid redundancies, costs can be cut by ten to hundred times in comparison to IP-driven models. Such commons also foster local capacity building, as various communities can take responsibility to validate, produce and distribute the projects (crowd/peer production).

Disease management: valve for mask (Isinnova Charlotte), oxygen concentrator (M19 O2), ventilation machine (OpenVent), ventilator co-design platform (Polyvent), genetic material development (OpenPCR), repurposing vaccines (OSPF OpenVax), repurposing treatments (DNDi AntiCov).

Disease prevention: hand rub (Geneva Hand Hygiene Model), Pulmonary Toolkit – 3D lung modeling (Pulmonary Toolkit), transparent mask (BEclear), air quality sensor (LogAir), digital health ecosystem (GNU Health).

Health promotion: fun respiratory care (Breathing Games), traditional medicine (CEMI), social support network (Art Hives).