
How a shampoo bottle is saving young lives - araneae
http:////www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/09/06/how-a-shampoo-bottle-is-saving-young-lives
======
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17945071](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17945071)

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zeristor
Looking this up led me to Open Pediatrics, a lovely idea:

[https://www.openpediatrics.org](https://www.openpediatrics.org)

A video going into more of the detail, on reflection the big idea seems to be
the air pressure oscillations

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=rjmdNspYoy4](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rjmdNspYoy4)

~~~
napoleoncomplex
Tangential, Openpediatrics seems like a great initiative, are there any other
such resources for other medical fields?

There is the FOAM movement (Free and open acces meducation -
[https://lifeinthefastlane.com/foam/](https://lifeinthefastlane.com/foam/))
but I bet there's many more out there.

It feels like there is some foundation for medicine to evolve like software
evolved, where there is more and more open source knowledge to build upon,
democratizing and lowering the cost of access to that knowledge.

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lultimouomo
It's not clear to me if he invented a new device, or simply built a 2$ home
made version of a 6000$ standard bubble-CPAP. In other word, is this a story
about ingenuity saving lives, or about regulation and industry profiting on
medical devices killing lives?

(Note that I'm not saying that we necessarily have too much regulation or that
medical industry profits too much; I'm just saying that in this specific case
they would be failing to save people, while overall they could still be
optimal)

~~~
CydeWeys
I think the real story is that there is clearly a market need for a simpler
and cheaper (if less effective) bubble CPAP, which will save many lives in
countries that can't afford the $6K version. It wouldn't be used here in the
US but it'd do a lot of good in Bangladesh.

I don't think it's a story of over-regulation, as I doubt Bangladesh has
regulations in place only allowing the $6K version.

~~~
dwild
> I don't think it's a story of over-regulation, as I doubt Bangladesh has
> regulations in place only allowing the $6K version.

Well it still could be. It's not because there's no over regulation there that
there's the expertise required to build and market an inexpensive CPAP machine
there. As far as we know, as soon as they get the expertise, they could just
move to another country and get a better wage in doing so.

I'm a software engineer and it's something that I think about. I'm only making
60k$ in Canada while the US the average is higher and in USD. I'm only 2 hours
away in car from the US.

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mettamage
> Ever heard of the concept of "jugaad"? It's a Hindi term meaning cheap
> innovation.

Let's use this word in English as well, as it allows to direct our attention
to jugaad immediately.

~~~
unmole
Eh, I tend to translate jugaad to hack.

~~~
ekianjo
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad)

> jugaad ~ hack

Welcome to Jugaad-er News.

~~~
infinityplus1
Well, a person who creates the jugaads is called "jugaadi". So, Jugaadi News.

~~~
CydeWeys
I would definitely read that blog!

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isoprophlex
What a nice story about keeping things simple.

Also, damn, neonatology must be brutal to work in at times.

~~~
taneq
I could never work in a vet office, obstetrics, neonates, or early
paediatrics. I don't know how people do it.

~~~
sambeau
I once asked the nurses in the intensive care ward, where my baby son was, why
they didn't work with adults rather than children. Surely the heartbreak was
hard to cope with? They said it was because children didn't know they were
supposed to be ill so they didn't lie around moaning like adults did—as soon
as they felt a little better they would jump up and go and play with their
toys. It was much more satisfying having patients who (if they got better) you
saw go from coma to running around again full of joy.

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keithpeter
_" His invention was inspired by something he saw while visiting Australia."_

Exchange visits(+) a good use of money perhaps? - spark that innovation.

(+) not necessarily just to 1st world countries by the way

~~~
RA_Fisher
Of course! Free of people and ideas is a great benefit to each of us. Some
folks give into resentment but most of that's caused by the central banks not
actual immigration. It's caused by central banks bc they have kept the
substitute for labor cheap. Low interest rates, as far as I can see, are one
of the principal causes of populism. Populism is the premise most folks would
use to argue against exchange visits.

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CryptoPunk
>>The hospital now deploys it routinely and the number of children who die
there from pneumonia has fallen by three-quarters. That means the survival
rate in the Dhaka Hospital is today almost on a par with that of children
treated in rich-world facilities, using conventional ventilators.

Innovation like this is facilitated by the lack of medical device regulations
in Bangladesh.

~~~
xyzzy123
I don’t think you deserve to be downvoted for this. A $5 hack is not really
possible in the west, and that is definitely a thing worth thinking about.

You might not get stopped from doing it if it was immediately obvious that it
was effective but eventually hundreds of thousands if not millions would be
spent on studies or approvals before a “proper” device made its way into the
supply chain at 10000x markup over injection moulding cost.

~~~
chrismeller
Also, is it really worth it to a doctor in the US? Even if I _know_ for a fact
that it would work 100% absolutely the same as the multi-million dollar
device, that's not the accepted procedure. I could still do it and save
thousands of lives, but as soon as _anything_ goes wrong there's going to be a
lawsuit and the fact that I used this crappy looking $5 thing is going to be a
huge part of it, even if it had absolutely nothing to do with the death.

Even if your motives were good, you were arguably doing what is best for
society, and the device had nothing at all to do with the situation your
career is over... Who in their right mind is ever going to do that?

~~~
RA_Fisher
If the doctor was doing good work, they should have no issue defending the
work in a civil trial. Of course that's costly, but then again we have given a
state-granted monopoly to lawyers: private bar associations that grant access
to courts.

~~~
chrismeller
Well in an ideal world, sure.

Waiting five years for it to go to any kind of trial and then potentially
being found guilty anyway because the jury sees an evil insurance corporation
and an evil for-profit corporation and an evil, manipulative doctor trying to
further his own career...

You’re going to lose anyway, and in the intervening 5 years you’re
unemployable... and no matter how the trial turns out you’re also
unemployable. That’s a lose-lose, and that’s why they _always_ settle.

------
ignoramous
Outlined: [https://outline.com/Yb8sLG](https://outline.com/Yb8sLG)

~~~
sparkzilla
Didn't News Genius run into trouble by copying articles for annotation like
this?

[https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2016/3/25/citation-
appropriatio...](https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2016/3/25/citation-
appropriation-and-fair-use)

~~~
CydeWeys
For sure they're going to go down in flames at some point. Enjoy the free
mirrors while they still work though.

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saadshamim
This reminds me of the $0.68 microscope:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-D1Upn-
KU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-D1Upn-KU). I love how a slight change
in perspective can result in such drastic applications of the same idea.

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rafaelvasco
Blessed be this man and his inspiration that is now saving many lives. Seeing
that little child entubed like that is so heartbreaking. I wonder why he can
make a device with a plastic bottle and a similar device costs thousands of
dollars more.

~~~
RA_Fisher
One reason is regulation. Regulation builds waste into the price and reduces
accessibility:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18733284](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18733284)

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reviseddamage
I tried to find out the name of the manufacturer of the low-flow oxygen
delivery approach recommended by WHO, but couldn't. Anybody else able to
figure it out?

~~~
wcoenen
There is no manufacturer because there is no equipment needed for low flow
oxygen, beyond an oxygen supply (from gas bottle) and a tube with two nozzles
that go into the patient's nostrils.

That's why WHO recommends it to hospitals who can't afford anything else.

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KillerRAK
Why do I read this headline to myself in Adam Sandler's voice???

~~~
zhoujianfu
Saving lives at a medium pace...

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andyjohnson0
The Economist article is paywalled for me, but BBC news has a piece at
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40498395](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40498395)
that describes the shampoo bottle hack.

~~~
known
Install [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/burlesco/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/burlesco/)

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thecatspaw
Honestly the amount of screen space the economist takes away is ridicolous.

[https://imgur.com/a/U0ClW65](https://imgur.com/a/U0ClW65)

(Yes I have an adblocker installed)

~~~
goldenkey
Not to mention these "please subscribe" and "you have no free articles left"
popovers and alerts. Whats even worse is that Google News now includes
paywalled publications with these spammy dark patterns. I don't mind paying
for Quanta or Nautilus and other high quality publications. But sorry [Generic
Copypasta News.] Most of the time all you do is copy the PR off Associated
Press - I am not going to pay for freely available current events or your
shitty OP-eds.

~~~
rootusrootus
This is The Economist. I doubt they use any AP material. They also get nearly
all their revenue from subscriptionz, not ads.

