SoylentNews

martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

Ars Technica is running a story [arstechnica.com] about a patient monitor going blank for five minutes during a cardiac catheterization [mayoclinic.org] — because it was performing its hourly AV (anti virus) scan. The patient was under sedation at the time and though there was a pause in the procedure, the patient apparently experienced no untoward effects.

It appears the system was misconfigured — it should not have been performing a scan of medical images — but it still strikes me as odd that there were no fail safes to ensure correct operation of the system while it was in use. Further, I cannot fathom how one could rationally design a system such that the built-in AV scan was running at such a priority level that it was even possible for it to interfere with the monitor's operation.

Have we learned nothing since the Therac-25 [wikipedia.org]?

Original Submission