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posted by janrinok on Wednesday April 15 2020, @03:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the takes-your-breath-away dept.

Medical device "jailbreak" could help solve the dangerous shortage of ventilators:

[...] Security researcher Trammell Hudson analyzed the AirSense 10—the world's most widely used CPAP—and made a startling discovery. Although its manufacturer says the AirSense 10 would require "significant rework to function as a ventilator," many ventilator functions were already built into the device firmware.

Its manufacturer, ResMed, says the $700 device solely functions as a continuous positive airway pressure machine used to treat sleep apnea. It does this by funneling air into a mask. ResMed says the device can't work as a bilevel positive airway pressure device, which is a more advanced machine that pushes air into a mask and then pulls it back out. With no ability to work in both directions or increase the output when needed, the AirSense 10 can't be used as the type of ventilator that could help patients who are struggling to breathe. After reverse-engineering the firmware, Hudson says the ResMed claim is simply untrue.

To demonstrate his findings, Hudson on Tuesday is releasing a patch that he says unlocks the hidden capabilities buried deep inside the AirSense 10. The patch is dubbed Airbreak in a nod to jailbreaks that hobbyists use to remove technical barriers Apple developers erect inside iPhones and iPads. Whereas jailbreaks unlock functions that allow the installation of unauthorized apps and the accessing of log files and forensic data, Airbreak allows the AirSense 10 to work as a bilevel positive airway pressure machine, a device that many people refer to as a BiPAP.

"Our changes bring the AirSense S10 to near feature parity with BiPAP machines from the same manufacturer, boost the maximum pressure output available, and provide a starting point to add more advanced emergency ventilator functionality," Hudson and other researchers wrote on their website disclosing the findings.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @04:49PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @04:49PM (#983123)

    I've read speculation that ventilators may be harmful to some coronavirus patients, especially when they're on a ventilator for an extended period of time. One suggestion has been to treat coronavirus like high altitude pulmonary edema and supply a continuous positive airway pressure. In other words, is it possible that the CPAP machines, as they currently function, might actually be more effective for many coronavirus patients than modifying them to function as a ventilator?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @05:01PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @05:01PM (#983127)

    Yep. I was just thinking the same. Maybe being on a ventilator for an extended period of time is harmful in itself or with other virus related cases using one of them.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @08:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2020, @08:42PM (#983200)

      It is already well-established in the medical field that being on a ventilator for a prolonged period of time can be harmful in itself. The problem is that, according to the numbers I've seen, is that the complication rate for COVID-19 patients is higher than the NNH of the intervention would suggest, even when you factor in the preexisting infections.