COSMIC’S HISTORY
On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.
Not long after the pandemic began, Dr. Christopher Nguan, an Associate Professor at UBC – Department of Urological Sciences, Surgical Head of Kidney Transplantation at Vancouver General Hospital and the Director of the Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory & Advanced Robotics (STELLAR) facility at VGH decided action was needed. Dr. Nguan reached out to a core group of researchers and students to see if they would be interested in working on a project to address the urgent issue. He teamed up with Philip Edgcumbe, a UBC medical student, and Alex Waslen, a UBC engineering student, to help and be part of the solution to COVID-19. Thus, the Collective Open-Source Medical Innovations for COVID-19 (COSMIC), a not-for-profit organization in Vancouver, Canada was created. Our mission at COSMIC is to create abundant access to medical equipment through open-source design solutions.
From its inception in March, 2020, COSMIC quickly grew to include over 150 volunteer students, engineers, doctors, makers, and designers. COSMIC volunteers worked together to design and manufacture personal-protective equipment and medical equipment for treating COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, we shared all of our knowledge through weekly public design reviews and by publishing our research, test results and designs. Some of our proudest accomplishments include winning the $100,000 Roche Canada COVID-19 Open Innovation Challenge, providing Brazilian hospitals with devices and designs for personal protective equipment (PPE), and spinning out Clarivent, a medical device company that is currently commercializing the bubble helmet, a positive pressure ventilatory support device for treating COVID-19 patients.
As of October 2021, COSMIC continues to support three active projects: 1) Bubble Helmet, 2) Oxygen Concentrator and 3) Algae Rebreather. Our plan is to support these projects until their successful endpoints and then transition the remaining COSMIC organization funding and institutional knowledge to amalgamate and support another like-minded organization. Currently, COSMIC is no longer seeking donations or new projects. If you are interested in learning more about other open source organizations, we recommend the following organizations: Public Invention, OSMS, Helpful Engineering.
Learn more about our history and values via the 2020 COSMIC Annual Report and the COSMIC media kit.
