Silicon Samaritans

In 2019 PC Labs established Silicon Samaritans: a non-profit collective of volunteers using their IT skills to make the world a better place, starting in our local community. We created this organization to construct, repair or recondition medical equipment and place it with people who need it. We actively assist local physicians in research, selection, testing, training and future support for the implementation of IoT class medical appliances. We followup by assisting patients with at-home implementation of that equipment. We design IoT medical devices with an eye toward minimizing maintenance and expense, while our open-source designs maximize ease of use, construction and repair. Taking a global view means choosing components most easily accessible to physicians and nurses in impoverished communities around the world!

At its core, Silicon Samaritans is primarily concerned giving back to our community through development of inexpensive IoT class medical monitoring devices, including the technical support services & training required by physicians and staff, as well as patient support services. Our volunteer resources are also used in the repair & reconditioning of medical appliances for the benefit of our community.

Our goal is to improve overall community health - to accomplish this, we diligently work to speed up rollout and implementation of such devices in our rural community - raising awareness while increasing doctor/patient confidence in the experience, ironing out any barriers we can identify and effectively address along the way. It is our view that technology can often outpace Doctor or patient comfort zone, effectively defining a new field service role with a blended medical/technical lexicon as well as the traditional & communicative skills of nursing. - but on the gripping hand, we perceive substantial concrete medical benefits with little to no patient risk or expense.

Currently we work with two local medical offices to provide this new tier of advice, staff training and patient support. We've completed extensive dialogue with these and other local/regional facilities in preparation for testing our newly developed devices once compliance is achieved with the numerous safety requirements of patient care areas. Careful attention is given to component design and part selection to assure global availability of components, minimal parts coste and simple assembly are possible. With minimal training and a 3D printer, the most basic of medical facilities worldwide will become better equipped and more efficient at no cost to the patient.