Jason Adams, a business-development executive by day and a molecular biologist by training, had never considered himself a hacker. That changed when he discovered an off-label way to monitor his 8-year-old daughters blood-sugar levels from afar. His daughter Ella has Type 1 diabetes and wears a glucose monitor made by Dexcom Inc. The device measures her blood sugar every five minutes and displays it on a nearby receiver the size of a pager, a huge advantage in helping monitor her blood sugar for spikes and potentially fatal drops. But it cant transmit the data to the Internet, which meant Mr. Adams never sent Ella to sleepovers for fear she could slip into a coma during the night. Then Mr. Adams found NightScout, a system cobbled together by a constellation of software engineers, many with diabetic children, who were frustrated by the limitations of current technology. The open-source system they developed essentially hacks the Dexcom device and uploads its data to the Internet, which lets Mr. Adams see Ellas blood-sugar levels on his Pebble smartwatch wherever she is. It isnt perfect. It drains cellphone batteries, can cut out at times and hasnt been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But for many, it has filled a gap. The home-built setup is part of a shift in the way Americans relate to the medical industry and their own health care. Technologically savvy patients are starting to tinker under the hoods of medical contraptions, seeking more influence over devices like blood-sugar monitors, insulin pumps and defibrillators that record and control bodily functions. Their goal is greater access to data and faster invention than is possible under the formal regulatory process. Patients have been tweaking hearing aids so they play music, using 3-D printers to make their own prosthetics and fiddling with a device used to measure acidity levels in the esophagus. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been hosting hackathons where engineers and students try to improve medical products and work out new solutions to common diseases. The latest one, held last weekend, was aimed at improving breast pumps. I have a huge bet on there being many other diseases that can be helped by these new forces in medicine, said Joyce Lee, a diabetes specialist and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan who researches design as it relates to health care. It is not the new blockbuster drug. Its not the newest FDA-approved device. But its the free hack that the patient came up with. m.wsj/articles/citizen-hackers-concoct-upgrades-for-medical-devices-1411762843?mobile=y
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 03:27:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015