Doctor builds cut-price stethoscope with 3D printer to save lives in Gaza Strip

A doctor has built a low-cost stethoscope using a 3D printer, the first in a series of inventions he hopes will help alleviate medical supply shortages in the Gaza Strip. Dr Tarek Loubani says his stethoscope can be made for just $2.50 – a fraction of the cost of leading brands – and some doctors say the equipment is just as good. The shortage of basic medical devices in the isolated Palestinian territory “is something that I think we can translate from a big problem to a big win for us in Gaza,” said Dr Loubani, an emergency medicine doctor from Canada. Now, he is on a trip to the occupied territory showing doctors there how to create them.

We want to produce these devices locally so they meet local need and so that they are not dependent of the political winds of the Israelis and of the donor community

Dr Tarek Loubani

Dr Loubani, 34, helped at Shifa, Gaza City’s main hospital, during an eight-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in 2012. As wounded Palestinians poured into the emergency room, the doctors had to make due with just two stethoscopes, he said. Back in Canada he was playing with his nephew’s toy stethoscope when he hit upon his cut-price idea. Last month, after several years of researching, designing and testing, Dr Loubani, who is of Palestinian descent, and his team at the self-funded Glia Project unveiled a plastic prototype. They have also developed designs for other 3D printable surgical tools such as needle drivers and pulse oximeters, which are used to measure the oxygen levels in a patient’s blood.

I have used it on many of my patients in the emergency department and can attest to the fidelity of the sound

Dr Jonathan Dreyer, University of Western Ontario

Technology