
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A pair of patients at an Austrian hospital became addicted to morphine after one of them hacked their drug pumps to boost their dosage, according to a local report.
The unidentified patients had to be treated for addiction after becoming dependent on high doses of morphine. Their usage was so severe, according to the Austrian Times, that one of the patients suffered respiratory arrest.
The patients didn’t need sophisticated tools or savvy to hack the machines. They had simply learned control codes for the machines online, to help finding alcohol rehab Times reported. The hospital has since taken steps to update its drug pumps with new codes and is gradually swapping out all of the older pumps with newer devices that have unmodifiable codes.
The Austrian Federal Agency for Safety & Heath Care at the Ministry for Health also issued a memo to device makers about the potential for manipulation and misuse due to insufficient authentication.
Boston Scientific aims to close more gaps
Boston Scientific’s (NYSE:BSX) 8-year-old "Close the Gap" initiative is expanding to include new disease states, now aiming to improve care for underserved populations suffering from asthma, colon cancer and pancreatic cancer in addition to cardiovascular diseases.
Read more
The good and bad in the FDA’s new medical data systems guidance
The FDA’s latest comments on its regulation of medical data systems leave a lot of gray area and room for interpretation, and companies should make sure they start early in thinking about how they’ll define the intended use for their products.
Read more
AccuVein touts children’s hospital study
AccuVein announced results from a children’s hospital study of its vein visualization system, saying that the technology nearly cut escalation calls in half.
Read more
Getting a better-look at the brain mid-stroke
New technology that uses magnetically-manipulated catheters looks promising in helping researchers get a look inside the brain during a stroke, advancing the potential for developing targeting treatments.
Read more