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OpenSource.com reports
Dana Lewis is the 2018 Women in Open Source Community Award winner! Here is her story about how open source improved her health in a big way.
Dana has Type 1 diabetes and commercially available medical devices were failing her. The continuous glucose monitor (CGM) alarm she was using to manage her blood sugar was not loud enough to wake her up. The product design put her in danger every time she went to sleep.
"I went to a bunch of manufacturers and asked what they could do, and I was told, 'It's loud enough for most people.' I was told that 'it's not a problem for most people, and we're working on it. It'll be out in a future version.'' That was all really frustrating to hear, but at the same time, I didn't feel like I could do anything about it because it's an FDA-approved medical device. You can't change it."
These obstacles aside, Dana thought that if she could get her data from the device, she could use her phone to make a louder alarm. Toward the end of 2013, she saw a tweet that provided an answer to her problem. The author of the tweet, who is the parent of a child with diabetes, had reverse-engineered a CGM to get the data off his child's device so that he could monitor his child's blood sugar remotely.
She realized that if he was willing to share, she could use the same code to build a louder alarm system.
"I didn't understand that it was perfectly normal to ask people to share code. That was my first introduction to open source."
[...] As Dana got more involved with the open source diabetes community, she met Ben West. He had spent years figuring out how to communicate with the insulin pump Dana used. Unlike a CGM, which tells the user if their blood sugar is high or low, an insulin pump is a separate device used to continuously infuse insulin throughout the day.
"A light bulb went off. We said, 'Oh, if we take this code to communicate with the pump with what we've done to access the data from the CGM in real time and our algorithm, we can actually process data from both devices in real time and create a closed-loop system.'"
The result was a do-it-yourself artificial pancreas system (DIY APS).
[...] "Because we had been using open source software, we knew that the right thing to do was to turn around and make what we had done open source as well so that other people could leverage it." And thus, OpenAPS (the Open Source Artificial Pancreas System) was born.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @12:29AM (19 children)
It's certification. That's why you still have Windows XP based ATMs and CAT scan machines.
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:16AM (15 children)
Indeed. Fortunately your own creations that you're not planning on selling or using on others to not need to be certified. DIY FTW.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:36AM (2 children)
That's interesting, given the general climate of our world- insurance companies, surveillance, rules, control, policing, etc. Does their work have a "don't try this at home" disclaimer somewhere?
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:42AM
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
However, their "product safety" page [openaps.org] go to a great length to explain the safety measures embedded in their design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @07:58PM
Generally speaking if something is going to be used as a "medical device" in the United States it requires FDA approval. https://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/Overview/default.htm [fda.gov]
If it ever becomes clinically relevant for liability or payment purposes the universe will mess them up badly. Like we ordered expensive drug X based on the data your product delivered and it wasn't certified, it doesn't matter if it worked perfectly or not, we'll have you pay the differences. Or if their modified device delivers a damaging dose (or fails to deliver a dose), if they haven't disclaimered the hell out it they'd probably be responsible in their own persons for the negligent damage. Or if it gets hacked. Or any number of things. That's why these things are so expensive, and yes even then there are mistakes. But the corporate overlords carry insurance against such things, mostly.
You want to play with your own health, your prerogative. You want to play with anyone else's, go through the proper licensing and approval processes.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:38AM (11 children)
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
For instance, you won't be allowed to DIY some nice organo-phosphorus compounds [wikipedia.org] even if you don't intend to use them on others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:00AM (10 children)
Sure you will unless you go telling people you're doing it first. This is why the job of the police is primarily arresting people after they've already broken the law. And why anyone with a lick of sense would never rely on the police to protect them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:46AM (6 children)
The equipment and precursors you are going to order may raise some flags with no such agencies anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:22AM (5 children)
Ordering precursors?! What kind of DIYer are you? Oh, you're probably one of those types who goes to build his own radio transmitter and uses an IC for the bulk of it instead of transistors, resistors, caps, and hand-rolled coils.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:31AM (4 children)
Mkay, less see you preparing the phosphorus trichloride to start with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:31AM (2 children)
s/less/let's/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday May 10 2018, @08:43PM (1 child)
That's right. It's "let's see" or "lessee", but never "less see".
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Friday May 11 2018, @12:32AM
The scourge of mobile devices and their autocorrect (lets -> less/let's?)
One can only hope to trigger their annoyance less, see...?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @12:45PM
See above about not publicizing things that will get jackbooted thugs at your door.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:52AM
Unless you're a roll of possibly abducted endangered Mentos... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/us/police-mentos-gun-video.html [nytimes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:33AM (1 child)
This.
Oh so very much this.
People or animals walking around in human skin don't care about the cops unless they are there or if they think they might get caught.
Police? Protect you? Sure. If standing beside you. And caring.
Otherwise you are on your own.
Carry a combat umbrella. Or a tactical torch. Learn stick fighting.
Equip a camera device to record video hands free.
Get evidence without criminals realizing.
Protect yourself.
Defend your family and property.
Mount cctv cameras that cover each other so taking one out requires the criminal to be seen.
By all means report incidents to the police.
But
don't expect then to protect you
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:28PM
Fuck an umbrella or a torch, live in a state with stand your ground laws and blow the fuckers away.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:43AM (2 children)
Yep. I always laugh when the self checkout stand at the grocery store BSODs, and I see Windows XP POS edition running on it.
It would be easier, cheaper, and better to go with Linux/BSD for embedded devices, but good luck getting certification on it or its introduction into any supply chain.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:41AM (1 child)
What makes you think there is any "certification" on such checkout systems?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ledow on Thursday May 10 2018, @09:09AM
PCI-DSS.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday May 10 2018, @12:36AM (1 child)
The OpenAPS was first released 3years ago. The bit of 'news' is: after 3 years they got an award.
Also implicitly expressed news: nobody sued them... yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @12:38AM
They said he couldn't do it. They said it was impossible. They laughed at him. They ridiculed him. They were wrong.
"Eureka!" the man screeched. At last, he had accomplished his lifelong goal! The man looked down and smiled with satisfaction. He had done it.
She was pregnant. While a woman getting pregnant wasn't a surprise, what was surprising was that this was a prepubescent girl whose body hadn't even started producing eggs. And yet, she was now pregnant. This was all thanks to the man's Miracle Seed, which had the capability to fertilize anyone 100% of the time. The man's long years of research had paid off. As the little girl whimpered and cried, the man thought about how famous he would become in the future, and how mankind could finally claw back some of its rights.
On that day, the scientific field of men's rights took one giant leap forward. On that day, humanity prospered.