Two years ago I was diagnosed with a heart condition and had to get an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillators), a device that restarts my heart when it suddenly stops. Since I’m a software developer and love technical stuff, I was, at the beginning, excited about getting an electronic device in my body. That changed, however, when i learned that I will have a metal box under my skin that nobody can or will explain anything about to me.
It’s frustrating not to have access to one’s own personal medical data, but worse than that, even my doctors do not have easy access to the data generated by my defibrillator. Another huge issue is security: Companies try to sell their products as completely safe and secure, but all software has bugs, and medical devices are no different. The difference here is that bugs or vulnerabilities in these devices can kill people – literally. I will talk about my personal experience of getting the device at the hospital in Bolzano, as well as some of the problems and concerns with having such a device.
