Low-cost healthcare innovations which are designed for economic reasons, popularly called frugal innovations (FI), are all about ‘doing more and better with less for more people’.1 Often synonymous with ‘work-arounds’ or ‘good-enough’ innovation, what FIs lack in sophistication or complexity they make up for in affordability, without scrimping on safety or effectiveness. Some good examples of FIs include the low-cost ECG machine GE MAC 400, Kangaroo Care, the Ponseti treatment for congenital clubfoot and mosquito net mesh used for hernia repair; each of which has a demonstrable evidence base for clinical effectiveness at extremely low cost.2–5 The philosophy of FI originates from grassroots, resource-constrained milieus, where most abundant of all-natural resources—human ingenuity—is used to optimise limited resources to solve problems.6 Any FI must result in substantial (at least one-third) cost reduction without compromising on its core functions and optimum performance level.7 Some FIs, although designed in the developing world, have been found useful for the developed world too and are labelled as ‘reverse innovation’, although this term is considered to be pejorative by some.8 9 Innovation, although central to the development of medical science, is a complex process and its definition continues to be debated.10 Its complexities are further reflected in challenges in its evaluation and reporting even though frameworks such as Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment and Long-term monitoring, a widely accepted benchmark, are available.11 In a recent systematic review, the measurement and reporting of surgical innovations continues to be inconsistent, and there is a need for standardisation and guidance.12 FIs reporting is made even more complex for two reasons (1) that they are work-arounds and unconventional solutions for reducing the complexity and cost of an idea, oftentimes unpatented, not commercialised, without financial backing or simple changes in practice or technique, and …

中文翻译：

---

对节俭创新的标准化报告的请求

出于经济原因而设计的低成本医疗保健创新，通常称为节俭创新 (FI)，都是关于“为更多人用更少的钱做更多更好的事”。1 通常与“变通办法”或“足够好”同义创新，金融机构以其可负担性弥补了其在复杂性或复杂性方面的不足，同时又不限制安全性或有效性。FI 的一些很好的例子包括低成本的心电图机 GE MAC 400、Kangaroo Care、用于先天性马蹄内翻足的 Ponseti 治疗和用于疝气修复的蚊帐网；每一个都有可证明的临床有效性证据基础，成本极低。 2-5 FI 的理念源于基层、资源受限的环境，在那里最丰富的所有自然资源——人类的创造力——被用来优化有限的资源解决问题。