Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the DIY dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow0824

Diabetics are hacking old insulin pumps to make them smarter — here's what happened when I tried it

There is a revolution in the Type 1 diabetes community and thousands of people are now hacking their insulin pumps for better blood sugar management. CNBC's Erin Black, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 20 years ago, decided to try out the hacked system. Here's what happened.

Type 1 diabetes is a disease that affects more than 1.2 million Americans. I'm one of them. It's a disease that impairs the body's ability to produce the hormone insulin, which normally comes from the pancreas. So insulin has to be injected.

Managing blood sugars can be very difficult, and patients use a pump to help mimic the activity of the pancreas. However, pumps don't automatically adjust insulin levels for diabetics. And the manual process is tedious and can be dangerous.

But a few years ago, people figured out how to hack their insulin pumps to make them automatically adjust insulin levels more precisely.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:58AM (4 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:58AM (#761649) Journal

    I really can't read youtube and would normally appreciate a text/transcript

    However, all I can see on the text page you linked is:
    - TFS; +
    -

    While there is now an FDA approved commercial product available — made by Medtronic — there are still thousands of Type 1 diabetics that are turning to hacking to get better blood sugar control. I wanted to explore why.

    Here's what happened when I put this do-it-yourself artificial pancreas system to the test.

    Dang! Not much more? So what good is that page?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @08:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @08:32AM (#761659)

    Control your insulin levels with this one easy trick...

  • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday November 14 2018, @10:37AM (2 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday November 14 2018, @10:37AM (#761688)

    I took it to mean they got side-tracked before they actually got around to hacking their insulin pump...

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JNCF on Wednesday November 14 2018, @05:52PM (1 child)

      by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday November 14 2018, @05:52PM (#761814) Journal

      I took it to mean that they died from an insulin overdose and never got around to finishing their article...

      • (Score: 1) by DeVilla on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:20PM

        by DeVilla (5354) on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:20PM (#762308)

        I think I read it a little bit differently.

        CNBC's Erin Black, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 20 years ago, decided to try out the hacked system. Here's what happened.

        This sounds interesting. I'll read on.

        Type 1 diabetes is a disease that affects more than 1.2 million Americans. I'm one of them.

        Wait??!? What!!?!
        That's awful!
        No, hacking it and hurting or killing yourself would be awful. Affecting 1.2 million other people? This is a weapon of mass destruction! It has to be illegal!