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Diabetics Are Hacking Their Own Insulin Pumps

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

upstart writes:

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

 
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  • (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)_/¯

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  • (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!