Distributed design and production for distributed care. Investigation on materializing bottom-up open and indie innovation in the field of healthcare.

The paper investigates the role of distributed design and digital fabrication in the materialization of open-source healthcare solutions co-developed by designers, makers, and user innovators with or within enabling environments such as makerspaces. A participatory and experimental design-oriented approach allows to refine the nonlinear development path that characterizes new fields in which design, technological experimentation, and medical research may find application possibilities can also be identified. With these premises, this work aims to explore the dynamics of designing products related to the emerging field of Distributed Care. Firstly, the paper defines the emerging field of distributed design for healthcare and analyses experimental initiatives exemplifying the field of Distributed Care. The second part of the paper interprets the results of the use case analysis to demonstrate how designers, makers, and independent innovators interacting with care specialists, patients, and caregivers – can design, produce and distribute solutions with a real market potential.