By Francesca Bordas
A conventional MRI scanner can cost well over $1 million. Open-source teams are showing that some imaging systems can be built for a fraction of that cost.
One example is the OSI² ONE, an open-source low-field MRI scanner developed through the Open Source Imaging Initiative. The system uses mostly open-source hardware and software, can image the head and extremities, and has been replicated in Europe and at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.
The system operates at a much lower magnetic field than conventional hospital MRI scanners, so its image quality and clinical capabilities are different. Its value comes from matching more affordable technology to situations where its capabilities are appropriate, and its limits are clearly understood.
That points to a bigger story.
Across healthcare, open-source design, local manufacturing, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are creating new ways to build and adapt technology in places where conventional equipment may be difficult to afford, import or maintain.
The strongest innovation is sometimes the technology that can reach the people who need it.
Why local access matters
The cost of healthcare technology extends beyond buying the equipment.
A medical device may also require specialised infrastructure, replacement parts, trained technicians and reliable supply chains. These requirements can make advanced equipment difficult to sustain in resource-constrained or conflict-affected settings.
Local production can help in some cases. When equipment or selected components can be manufactured closer to where they are needed, communities gain more room to adapt designs to local conditions and develop the skills required to maintain them.
Several initiatives are already showing what this can look like.
A stethoscope designed around scarcity
In Gaza, emergency physician Dr Tarek Loubani and collaborators developed an open-source, 3D-printable stethoscope through the Glia Project.
The design files are openly available, allowing others to reproduce and adapt the device in places where access to conventional medical equipment may be limited.
The project’s significance goes beyond producing a cheaper stethoscope. It began with a local problem and developed a tool around resources that could realistically be accessed.
Open-source design can therefore build local problem-solving capacity.
Prosthetics on the Thailand-Myanmar border
The same principle applies to prosthetic care.
The Burma Children Medical Fund launched a 3D prosthetics programme to provide custom-fitted upper-limb prosthetics and assistive devices to people in Thailand and Myanmar.
The programme has used open-source designs, 3D scanning and computer-aided design to create devices suited to individual users. An academic evaluation also found that the initiative was building local design skills alongside providing prosthetic devices.
That matters because providing a device can meet an immediate need, while developing the skills to design, adapt and maintain future devices creates capability that can remain in the community.
Africa is already part of this story
Accessible medical technology is also being developed and tested in Africa.
The OSI² ONE MRI project has been replicated at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, placing an African institution within an international open-source imaging effort.
Advanced medical technologies often come with infrastructure, maintenance and technical requirements that can make them difficult to sustain in some African settings. Open-source systems give universities, researchers, and health institutions more opportunity to understand the technologies they use and help adapt them to local conditions.
The opportunity extends beyond acquiring affordable equipment. It includes developing the technical knowledge needed to build, modify, maintain and eventually improve that technology.
Access becomes more sustainable when knowledge travels with the technology.
AI can extend what lower-cost technology can do
Artificial intelligence adds another layer to this shift.
Low-field MRI systems produce weaker signals than conventional high-field scanners, placing greater demands on image reconstruction and processing.
Researchers are exploring computational approaches, including deep-learning denoising and advanced image reconstruction, to improve images produced by lower-field systems.
AI can help extend the capability of affordable hardware in some settings, provided it is supported by clinical validation, sound engineering, trained professionals and appropriate regulation.
This is also why communication around health innovation matters.
A new technology needs to be explained in a way that makes its possibilities and limitations clear. Hezron Ochiel explores this challenge in Bridging the Gap Between Research and the Public: A Practical Guide for Journalists and Communication Specialists.
Good innovation needs good evidence, and people need to understand that evidence well enough to make informed decisions about the technology.
Start with the problem, then choose the tools
The examples from Gaza, the Thailand-Myanmar border and Uganda share one important feature: they begin with a clearly defined problem.
The technology follows.
This matters because conversations about innovation can easily become centred on the newest tool instead of the need it is meant to address.
A 3D printer has little value on its own. Its usefulness emerges when people understand a problem well enough to design something meaningful.
The same principle applies to AI and open-source software.
Technology becomes valuable when it connects to a real problem and the people who understand it.
Access still requires safety
Affordable medical technology still needs standards.
A 3D printer does not automatically turn every design into a safe medical device, and a low-field scanner does not provide the same diagnostic capability as every conventional hospital system.
Clinical validation, quality control, training and regulation remain essential.
The goal is responsible access: making useful technologies easier to build, obtain and maintain while preserving the safeguards needed to protect patients.
A solution developed for one environment may still need testing and adaptation before it can be safely used somewhere else.
The bigger opportunity is local capability
The most important result of this movement may be the knowledge built around the technology.
When a university assembles an open-source scanner, local engineers learn how the system works. When a prosthetics programme trains its own staff in digital design, the team becomes better able to adapt future devices.
That knowledge can remain after an individual project ends and travel when local innovators document their designs, results and lessons.
For African institutions, this creates an important opportunity.
Local innovation can solve immediate problems and also add African knowledge and experience to wider global conversations about technology and healthcare.
Building locally creates capability. Documenting what is learned allows that capability to travel.
Accessible innovation begins locally
Open-source technology, 3D printing and AI will not solve every healthcare access challenge.
They are already showing that some technologies can be built and adapted closer to the communities that need them.
Examples from Gaza, the Thailand-Myanmar border, and Uganda point to a common lesson: useful innovation begins with understanding the problem and the environment in which the solution must work.
When local knowledge, appropriate tools and responsible testing come together, communities gain greater ability to understand, adapt and build.
Accessible medical innovation works best when technology is shaped around the people, resources and conditions of the place where it will be used.
The tools may travel globally.
Their usefulness is built locally.
Francesca Bordas is a writer and emerging commentator on artificial intelligence, digital innovation and the future of society. Her work explores how evolving technologies may influence healthcare, work, and everyday life, while encouraging thoughtful discussion of the opportunities and ethical questions they raise.