How an Obsolete Medical Device With a Security Flaw Became a Must-Have For Some Patients With Type 1 Diabetes

'In 2014, a few hackers realized that the security flaw in certain
Medtronic pumps could be exploited for a DIY revolution. Type 1
diabetes is a disease where the pancreas is unable to produce insulin
to control blood sugar. For years, Boss (the anecdote in the story who
purchased used insulin pumps from some dealer on Craiglist) had
counted, down to the gram, the carbohydrates in every meal and told
his pump how much insulin to dispense. [...] By 2014, the hardware
components of a DIY artificial pancreas -- a small insulin pump that
attaches via thin disposable tubing to the body and a continuous
sensor for glucose, or sugar, that slips just under the skin -- were
available, but it was impossible to connect the two. That's where the
security flaw came in. The hackers realized they could use it to
override old Medtronic pumps with their own algorithm that
automatically calculates insulin doses based on real-time glucose
data. It closed the feedback loop.

They shared this code online as OpenAPS, and "looping," as it's
called, began to catch on. Instead of micromanaging their blood sugar,
people with diabetes could offload that work to an algorithm. In
addition to OpenAPS, another system called Loop is now available.
Dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands of people are experimenting
with DIY artificial-pancreas systems -- none of which the Food and
Drug Administration has officially approved. And they've had to track
down discontinued Medtronic pumps. It can sometimes take months to
find one. Obviously, you can't just call up Medtronic to order a
discontinued pump with a security flaw. "It's eBay, Craigslist,
Facebook. It's like this underground market for these pumps," says
Aaron Kowalski, a DIY looper and also CEO of JDRF, a nonprofit that
funds type 1 diabetes research. This is not exactly how a market for
lifesaving medical devices is supposed to work. And yet, this is the
only way it can work -- for now.'

-- source: https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/04/29/2051257

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
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