> but I'd be wary of hacking insulin pumps, let alone using them.
If you have type 1 diabetes hacked insulin pumps or otherwise, the disease will kill you prematurely. It's a question of "when" rather than "if". Mostly this is because the disease requires constant attention - attention of the sort humans aren't good at providing, even if their life depends on it. Listen to this talk about OpenAPS. See where she says so has to wake up on average 200 times a month - or any 6 times a night, every night, regardless of whether she's pulled at 24hr day or had a good night out to monitor her levels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p76hGxv3-HE
I know the authorities will find it an anathema, but this is a very good argument for allowing the development of open source medical devices outside of the current regulations. The existing system is about controlling the private sector - making sure someone doesn't kill someone for the sake of a quick dollar. Open source turns that equation on it's head. No one is selling anything - so there is no quick buck to be made. It's just sane, sensible people trying to stay alive, and are very, very aware if they get it wrong it will kill them.
While there is a cost advantage as the talk makes plain this isn't what motivated them. Their hashtag spells out the motivation: #WeAreNotWaiting. Waiting means a chance of dying. A capitalist system that has to be tightly constrained by government regulation to prevent it from killing too many people turned out to be far slower than open source doing the same thing.
Again, listen to the talk. Listen to the lengths the people who use OpenAPS went to make sure their novel devices didn't kill them. Learn how they voluntary pooled millions of device hours of data, and made it open available so they could all learn from it. Unlike you, I'd trust OpenAPS firmware long before I trusted some closed source solution on the promise that "we are making money from it - trust us". Thanks all the same, but I'll prefer to trust the people who would be killed by it if they get it wrong.
If you have type 1 diabetes hacked insulin pumps or otherwise, the disease will kill you prematurely. It's a question of "when" rather than "if". Mostly this is because the disease requires constant attention - attention of the sort humans aren't good at providing, even if their life depends on it. Listen to this talk about OpenAPS. See where she says so has to wake up on average 200 times a month - or any 6 times a night, every night, regardless of whether she's pulled at 24hr day or had a good night out to monitor her levels:
I know the authorities will find it an anathema, but this is a very good argument for allowing the development of open source medical devices outside of the current regulations. The existing system is about controlling the private sector - making sure someone doesn't kill someone for the sake of a quick dollar. Open source turns that equation on it's head. No one is selling anything - so there is no quick buck to be made. It's just sane, sensible people trying to stay alive, and are very, very aware if they get it wrong it will kill them.While there is a cost advantage as the talk makes plain this isn't what motivated them. Their hashtag spells out the motivation: #WeAreNotWaiting. Waiting means a chance of dying. A capitalist system that has to be tightly constrained by government regulation to prevent it from killing too many people turned out to be far slower than open source doing the same thing.
Again, listen to the talk. Listen to the lengths the people who use OpenAPS went to make sure their novel devices didn't kill them. Learn how they voluntary pooled millions of device hours of data, and made it open available so they could all learn from it. Unlike you, I'd trust OpenAPS firmware long before I trusted some closed source solution on the promise that "we are making money from it - trust us". Thanks all the same, but I'll prefer to trust the people who would be killed by it if they get it wrong.