@Loverock Davidson ,
I totally agree. Wow, I didn't think I would say that to one of your posts, but I do agree with you.
I have worked, briefly, in the medical device industry, as a software engineer, and I can attest to the fact that the testing is rigorous. Anything that was to come in contact with a patient was put through a battery of tests and peer reviews (from people who both understood the application and the hardware into which it was going) before being sent out for clinical trials.
I cannot see a benefit from opening the source. These are not applications running on a desktop. Some of this code is running on non-standard operating systems or no OS at all and would require an in-depth knowledge of the hardware to understand the functionality. The hardware design would have to be open sourced as well, and that would open the door for cheap (both in price and quality) counterfeit devices.
I cannot see medical devices being open sourced, and I think it would be a bad idea.
Absolving the companies of responsibility is also a bad idea.
FTH
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