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Medical Equipment Crashes During Heart Procedure Because Of Antivirus Scan (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Softpedia: The device in question is Merge Hemo, a complex medical equipment used to supervise heart catheterization procedures, during which doctors insert a catheter inside blood veins and arteries in order to diagnose various types of heart diseases. According to one such report filed by Merge Healthcare in February, Merge Hemo suffered a mysterious crash right in the middle of a heart procedure when the screen went black and doctors had to reboot their computer. Merge investigated the issue and later reported to the FDA that the problem occurred because of the antivirus software running on the doctors' computer. The antivirus was configured to scan for viruses every hour, and the scan started right in the middle of the procedure. Merge says the antivirus froze access to crucial data acquired during the heart catheterization. Unable to access real-time data, the app crashed spectacularly.
Antivirus systems aren't useless(I wouldn't trust their 'disinfection'; but they at least catch people reusing obsolete exploits and sometimes provide warnings that something is amiss); but this is one of those situations where hearing that antivirus software is running is a giant red flag: it usually means that a full-fat desktop/server OS with a network connection and who-knows-what-else running on it is doing the job of a dedicated computer. Quite probably being allowed to retain state over time except for the ever so occasional re-imaging. That just isn't going to go well. Even if your application needs full Windows whatever for some reason, there are plenty of ways to keep it on a much tighter leash than just shoving a desktop at the problem and hoping Norton can save you. If a system is contained by the network so that it can only talk to the external hosts it absolutely needs; and is booting from a clean, static, image every time(with all changes discarded after any data generated during the session are moved elsewhere) you are a great deal safer.
Having worked in biochem, it's not the hardware vendors causing the lag, it's the FDA-mandated cGMP validation and certification process that takes for.fucking.ever and has to be repeated for every tiny little change. Yes, it helps ensure quality and consistency, but it is painfully slow and discourages change, however desirable.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
. ,even though it wasn't?), and that being able to use their knowledge of Windows is a benefit that will make their system better.
It is easy to fall for the siren-song hype from the marketeers that the general purpose operating system is up to the task (remember Microsoft's marketing push that Windows CE was a real-time operating system
Whether it is a weather application being used on live television, or a computer being used in an operating room, Microsoft has shown that Windows is not a proper steward of serious systems programming.
I used to work for a company that built ophthalmic ultrasound machines. It was Windows based (unfortunately). IT departments, being who they are, wanted to put things like antivirus on it. Then the doctors would complain that the MEDICAL INSTRUMENT wasn't performing as advertised. They send it in to us for 'repair'. We remove the shitty antivirus (and all the other crap that IT guys would install on it), then it works perfectly again. We return it.. and IT guys would screw it up again. Rinse, repeat, ad infinitum.
MEMO TO IT GUYS: Stop treating medical instruments like they're desktop computers! Find another solution, or AT LEAST be smart about how you're installing your junk on it, IT IS A MEDICAL INSTRUMENT, DAMNIT!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
This sort of stuff should never be built on Windows in the first place!
Why not? When was the last time Windows has thrown a bluescreen without external help, poorly coded drivers, or failing hardware? Windows itself is incredibly resilient even for all the shit developers throw at it. Hell it can even cope with faulty video card hardware or crashing drivers mid games these days, not only with the OS surviving but without actually even disrupting the game.
It's been a long time since Windows was able to crash on it's own accord, like 1998 where the system went down every 49.7 days.