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My insulin pump controller has a bug

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Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#111

Post by schiffern »

omh wrote: post #33

A clearer description of the bug is here: https://twitter.com/Tims_Pants/status/1730515134731182490 It's wild that this sort of bug got through testing. As a diabetic it feels like our insulin pump software is very conservative and lacking in features especially compared to what some of the "closed loop" things would like to do. That seems reasonable if the manufacturers are having to do lots of safety testing. But i…

The user-blaming stands out in their official communication. Bad sign for company culture.

> Once the bolus dose is confirmed and you tap START, the value that is shown on the screen will be delivered by the system...

> As stated in our User Guide, it is important to review the bolus amount before you confirm and start the bolus. Omnipod 5 will always deliver the amount you confirm and that is shown on the Confirm Bolus screen (Figure 2).

Is this saying there's no way to stop it, even if it hasn't performed the injection and killed you yet?

"Hello, Insulet customer support? My Omnipod is going to kill me. Quick, what do I do?!?"

"Didn't you read our Guide?? Omnipod will always deliver the amount you confirmed! RTFM!! click"

--

Seriously though, what's the intended recovery procedure for this? Can the device be removed quickly? Batteries taken out? Emergency Stop?

Or are users expected to carry a firearm at all times to "rapidly disassemble" a murder-happy medical device? :-\

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#112

Post by pixl97 »

freedomben wrote: post #46
Ferret7446 wrote: post #8

I can't comprehend how that kind of bug even happens. Not that insulin pumps should have any bugs, but it doesn't even sound like an integer overflow or use after free which is "understandable". Are they doing some kind of scuffed string parsing?

With low level devices, I have been amazed at how many hackish things are done by people who don't have sufficient experience developing such things. I would not be surprised to find out that they are parsing or storing the value without the leading decimal, and depending on code in some other place to prepend the leading decimal, and there be a corner case or something that misses this, and no safety checks or even…

In the t.slim they have a maximum dose in time range setting on the device. I don't use the app for it, so I don't know if the phone app could override that setting. If I remember right that is triggered while pumping so if you hit the limit in the middle of dose administration it will stop.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#113

Post by pixl97 »

patagurbon wrote: post #103
phil21 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This device can hold up to 200 units of insulin in it's cartridge. I'm not familiar with it to say if it has any safety interlocks to administer some sort of max dose lower than that at a time though.

There is a user setting for maximum bolus. For me I have it set to 30, but some may set it lower. Indeed that might be recommended after this.

Yea, you should never run the device without a max bolus set. Even 30 to me seems high, but insulin update can be wildly random between people.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#114

Post by patagurbon »

One other thing to note here, with the Dexcom and Omnipod running together you really shouldn't be giving yourself boluses directly. Instead you type in the number of carbs you intake, and let the system make adjustments. In my experience taking direct insulin messes with the algorithm that tries to manage your sugar.

I suspect this is why this wasn't noticed immediately.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#115

Post by nfriedly »

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #58

"We understand this may impact your experience and are here to support you." I love this - I've never heard the euphemism impact your experience used to mean that your life may end . What a wild PR assignment (language off the company's safety notice https://www.omnipod.com/en-gb/fsn-11-2023 )

> This issue only occurs if [...] You do not recognize that the bolus amount is wrong and start the bolus that is larger than you intended

"The issue only occurs if you don't notice it's occurring."

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#117

Post by onetimeuse92304 »

fsflover wrote: post #69
onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are missing the point. The point is that with commercial software is that there exists an entity that accepts responsibility for it under threat of severe penalties. You don't want somebody to be killed and then have just everybody shrug "it is not me" and not be able to find a culprit. Personally, I always include a note that my software is offered as is and I do not accept any liability for anything tha…

> The point is that with commercial software is that there exists an entity There is no reason you can't hire a company to support free software.

You can hire, but no company will take responsibility for it as in be liable in court for damages.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#118

Post by code_duck »

looperhacks wrote: post #66

Now I know why my wifes insulin pump's (Medtronic) Android app doesn't support setting the bolus and only allows observation :D It's likely better that way. If the app would allow this, I'd already decompiled the app and tried to reverse engineer the protocol to allow her to set a bolus when she's wearing something that makes it hard to access the pump or carry her phone with her (like a dress). Setting the bolus via…

The app and firmware for the Tandem T-Slim were updated last year or so to allow dosage from the phone app. People on Twitter and reddit were very excited - finally! How convenient! My thought was wow, that is something I really don’t want at all, from a standpoint of possible bugs, security risk and accidental dosage. I don’t want someone who hacks my phone or insulin pump to be able to kill me. Of course, nobody on reddit took my opinion seriously.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#119

Post by pixl97 »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #12

I worked for a bank - a bug (arithmetic overflow) tried to charge a customers credit card for more than a million kabillion on a payment - thankfully it was caught upstream and declined. One of the reasons why I will never work in the medical field - too much real life consequences - wrong account entries can be fixed by journal entries :).

I'm not sure about this unit, but with my Tandem there is a maximum dose setting on the unit. I don't use the app to dose, so I have no idea if the app obeys that.

Even with the maximum dose setting there is a massive range of doses some people need, especially if they have resistance and don't manage carbs well. As others have mentioned in thread they use a 30u max dose setting, which for me would be around 1/3rd of the total daily intake.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#120

Post by peteradio »

layer8 wrote: post #83
cypherpunks01 wrote: post #58

"We understand this may impact your experience and are here to support you." I love this - I've never heard the euphemism impact your experience used to mean that your life may end . What a wild PR assignment (language off the company's safety notice https://www.omnipod.com/en-gb/fsn-11-2023 )

They probably literally meant impact your having an experience , not impact the content of your experience . ;)

We apologize for an problems you may have with your experience ending.
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