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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 14 2018, @09:28PM
I would draw a distinction between
A) Modifying your pacemaker/insulin pump voids the warranty and means you can't sue the manufacturer if it fails and harms you
B) Modifying your pacemaker/insulin pump wins you a call from a lawyer and a DMCA lawsuit
But this is the U.S. we're talking about, so inevitably one of these people will try to sue the manufacturer after modding.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"