Software that controls your body should always respect your freedom. This article is a recap of scandals of medical devices, like hearing aids, insulin pumps, bionic eyes, and pacemakers, and what we can learn from them. It’s astonishing: you wouldn’t expect these devices to be run by software in such a way that they can leave you completely helpless.
There’s a pretty vibrant open source diabetes community in Germany. Some tools such as AndroidAPS and xDrip have been existing for a long time and work together with many pump and CGM models available through the health insurance. GPL-3.0 licensed.
At least these were very beneficial for me, A1c went down from 7.5 to 5.5% without many hypos. You have to compile AndroidAPS by yourself due to distributing binaries would not be legal. It requires some knowledge, but for my partner not needing to call an ambulance ever again when I have a nightly hypo, that is a big win.
No nightly hypos for the past five years I’ve been using these tools…
Damn this is scary. How are we so dependent on the distribution (control) of software, especially healthcare related, through two corporations: Alphabet and Apple. I am not so naive as to believe the open internet or freeware is free of nefarious actors, but the testing and checks and balances would play out far safer than this for-profit stranglehold.
I have no idea how people who aren’t tech-interested, but dependent on these systems, stay sane. What a miserable way to live life.
The article didn’t go in the direction I expected. Theoretically, open source software can be fixed by experts outside of the main company, but it would be very niche. The expert would need to be familiar with the specific hardware at least, have varying degrees of medical knowledge and have access to the individual in need in some cases.
Forced updates and treating medical software as no more special than a game is the problem when dealing with apps. Tag medicals apps and make it so that system updates have to be manual or go through warnings before being deployed. Offer the option to go back to a version that previously worked. Create regulations to make companies liable for malfunctions.
It’s not about open source, but free/libre software. Third-party developers being able to change the software is a side effect of who is in control of the software that keeps you alive.
Sure we can do certification and similliar, but we still can’t be sure what’s really inside. Also the is a problem of accessibility. What if the app that you need to be alive is made only available from Google Play Store for “security reasons”? Now you are tied to the will of Google if they want you to serve the app or approve account for you.
What free software does is basically makes a protection from many types of abuses that are implications of user not being practically able to do what developer can.
Tandem Diabetes, the people that make one of the few insulin pumps out there, quite vocally demand that, to keep your official apps working, you not update to the latest versions of Android or iOS.
Software that controls your body should always respect your freedom
FTFY
But it is extremely worrying that so many devices that people require for their health and have no alternative for are so invasive and can be turned off without any warning.
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