generate @ UnityPoint Health

The future of healthcare is for those who make.

UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids has partnered with Boston-based MakerHealth for the construction and ideation of generate @ UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids, an open access medical technology and learning lab that will provide hospital and clinic employees and patients access to world-class tools to create and fabricate the future of healthcare devices.

Create what you can hold in your hand.

generate @ UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids encourages and enables innovation at the bedside or in the clinic. It is designated space in the hospital where nurses, physicians, team members, patients and community partners can transform their ideas for improving patient care into tangible prototypes to be tested and reviewed for implementation.

In addition to generate @ UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids, there are two MakerHealth satellite labs with medical fabrication resources at Witwer Children's Therapy locations in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.

Some fast facts about the UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids and MakerHealth partnership:

• UnityPoint Health – Cedar Rapids has worked with MakerHealth and the MakerNurse community for nearly two years through a Makerspace in the Cloud license, hosting seven pop-up lab events in the hospital and community
• These pop-up labs and the Makerspace in the Cloud license has resulted in 57 projects made by clinicians, with 11 of those already in use at St. Luke's and its clinics
• Some of these projects include a sensor system, designed and made by nurse Christina Ross, connected to a wound vac device to alert nurses via text message when the system pressure is low and a 3D printed case for medication vials to prevent needle sticks in the operating room made by nurse Krystle Bragg

generate Lab Innovations

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Made Possible Thanks to St. Luke's Foundation

The MakerNurse space at St. Luke's is possible thanks to philanthropy. St. Luke's Foundation received a $500,000 gift from the estate of Viola Reth, a former St. Luke's nurse and teacher who passed away in 2017 at the age of 92.

"We felt the MakerNurse project was just the right blend of education and nursing, both of which were important to Viola," said Mary Klinger, St. Luke's Foundation president. "We believe this innovative project is a perfect way to honor Viola and her legacy. Her generous gift makes this project possible."