Open Source Pancreas with Dana Lewis

Patients with Type-1 diabetes need to frequently pump insulin into their bodies. In order to know when to pump insulin, these patients have a continuous glucose monitor alarm which detects incorrect levels of blood glucose.

When the alarm goes off, the diabetes patient administers insulin manually through the pump. In an ideal world, the alarm would communicate with the insulin pump, creating a closed loop. But the world of outdated medical devices is not ideal.

Dana Lewis is a developer of an open-source, closed-loop artificial pancreas called the Do-It-Yourself Pancreas system. Dana joins the show to discuss how she hacked together her artificial pancreas using a Raspberry pi plugged into these medical devices.  This is a fascinating story of reverse engineering, internet of things, and the hacker mentality.

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