[ShadowAce]

[Malsua]

I was at the Emergency room about a year ago and we’re in the curtained off area and I’m hearing a “crisis” of some sort occurring in the next space. One nurse, then another, then a dr, finally a guy comes down from somewhere, then I hear the windows boot up sound and everyone goes “Aww, there it is, thanks”.

Scary on a few levels.

[docman57]

Oh don’t get me started on this. I will say that Steve and Elizabeth have taken things a long way and are doing a great job and are the right people to do so. They wrestle with these issues daily and have asked the same questions many have posted here. Often the issue has to do with infighting between Biomed Equipment specialists and IT personel. The Biomed side has a high degree of medical and electronics training, and understands equipment applications and uses. The IT side is predominately software and network trained with little or no medical background. It’s often like mixing oil and water.

[martin_fierro]

[KoRn]

"it turns out that quite a lot of patient-care medical equipment sold these days is based on Windows. And this Windows-based equipment, whether it be cancer-care, EKG or ultrasound machines, is prone to getting hit by computer worms and viruses like any other Microsoft-based machine sitting on a corporate LAN."

I work at a hospital in the IT department, and this is ALL true. The primary reason Windows runs on all of these computers is because of software vendors, and 3rd party companies that use software that requires Windows. Almost all of the applications out there that are involved with the medical field run a GUI and are Windows based. Scary isn't it? Hell, we are REQUIRED to use Internet Explorer where I work because one of our patient care apps is web based and WILL NOT WORK if another browser attempts to use it.(I tried the firefox user agent switcher addon to no avail). I once asked a rep from the company why they require us to use an inherently insecure web browser and he just looked at me as if he were dumbfounded.

I have long advocated that no computer that deals with patient information should ever have access to the internet, but it falls on deaf ears. One time I found a keylogger on a registration computer that was there as a result of a spyware 'infection'. That's very scary. Our firewall would have blocked any outbound traffic from the key logger had it been the type that 'calls home', but it was disturbing to see.

[Bob]

This brings a whole new meaning to Blue Screen of DEATH.

[Still Thinking]

You may never think of hospitals quite the same way again, but it turns out that quite a lot of patient-care medical equipment sold these days is based on Windows

Geez, talk about the Blue Screen of Death! I didn't realize they were literal.

[Still Thinking]

Medical-device manufacturers such as Philips Medical Systems typically prohibit hospital IT administrations from applying software updates on their own to medical equipment regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

I can't believe the FDA will even permit Windows in a life critical device in the first place. In the manufacturing world where we build and use dangerous equipment that could maim or kill a person, we would never entrust the safety of even the equipment, let alone an individual, to a programmable device, except one whose hardware has been specifically designed for the purpose.

[militem]

I am responsible for some of the small animal scanners at UW-Madison. We get several MS error reports weekly, but nobody’s life is on the line. What is scary is that the producers normally have the tech know-how to program in assembly, but they retard the software by putting it on operating systems. Just my small experience.

[amchugh]

Could be worse, like overwhelming radiation exposure.