MakeToCare is a research initiative that started as a spin-off of the eponymous contest, promoted by Sanofi in 2016 during the European Maker Faire in Rome.

MakeToCare aims to identify, map and represent an emerging ecosystem made up of patient innovators, independent researchers, research institutions, start-ups and new entrepreneurs, makers and laboratories for digital manufacturing that work on the development of concrete design solutions capable of improving daily life and the health of people living with disabilities.

This first edition of the MakeToCare report proposes a path of exploration and mapping in progress, divided into three interrelated and complementary directions:

1. devising a general scenario that comprises the main transformation directives of the healthcare field, from social changes to the emerging role of patients as active subjects in the health system, from the dissemination of digital enabling technologies up to the transformation of healthcare products and services in which to place MakeToCare;

2. defining MakeToCare as a research, experimentation, and innovation Ecosystem, distinguished by the growing diffusion and integration of collaborative practices developed by patients, caregivers, patient associations, and healthcare research centers with the open design and maker culture typical of makers, digital manufacturing labs, and the world of med-tech start-ups;

3. the first mapping of the MakeToCare Ecosystem referring to the Italian context, identifying 120 innovative solutions in the healthcare field carried out by 188 subjects mapped in the Ecosystem. Data and information on projects and subjects have been analyzed and reprocessed through interpretative infographic maps that support a multi-level reading of the Ecosystem.

The results of this research represent the basis for building and developing the MakeToCare Ecosystem, validating it in institutional, cultural, scientific and economic contexts as a possible new scenario for the development of innovation in the healthcare sector.

Maffei, S., Bianchini, M., Parini, B., Delli Zotti, E. (2017). An ecosystem of actors and user-centered solutions for innovation in the healthcare sector. Libraccio Editore

Download the Report MakeToCare