D-Lab: Medical Technologies for the Developing World
MIT's D-Lab Health course teaches a multidisciplinary approach to designing medical technology for low-resource settings. Guest lectures from global health practitioners cover the current state of health challenges in developing countries, and students work in teams on a fieldwork-based project addressing a specific problem. Some students travel to Nicaragua over spring break to work directly with local health professionals, testing device concepts with design kits in the field. The class culminates in a product design solution responding to the challenges observed on that trip, and prototypes built from the designs continue to be tested and refined over the summer. Materials on MIT OpenCourseWare include the syllabus, project guidelines, and readings, offered under MIT's Edgerton Center. No certificate is offered, consistent with OCW's open publication of course materials rather than a formal instructor-led enrollment.