Having written my share of code, not device specific but wrote an EMR medical records system I can attest to the fact that this should not be open sourced as the software is not out there for beta testing in humans and the companies I know do a lot of testing but even with the best of all minds something gets missed. Look at what we use for operating systems where we get Tuesday updates for a good example.
The software is designed for very specific hardware. There are a couple sites out there like E-Zassi whereby companies can look for specific matches with developers and companies like Medtronic use those sites too.
When writing an EMR I was doctor's shadow as I had to watch and try to encompass everything he did and create the user solutions for ease of use as best I could so it's group effort with users/coders by all means and with software/devices being so specific today it's too dangerous to throw it out there. Now if you had a portion of an entire solution that needed work, part of a program that could be crowd sourced a bit, but that is almost specific beta testing if you will.
Drugs are now being designed virtually with software too with virtual virus, in other words they show the same functionality with software as they would in real life so this is getting pretty technical and designing a drug and device are 2 very different issues. The FDA often uses outside 3rd parties for their testing/approval process too so that is not all in house either.
Now for what really gets me going are recalls on these devices and I have a campaign going since last October to get bar coding, Microsoft Tags on drugs and devices and have a synchronized data base at the FDA because people are implanted with devices that don't get pulled from the shelves that are defective, recalls were sent out and they were missed, so now we have a patient that died as he/she was implanted with a device that missed the recall efforts and this happens more than we want to think about as the FDA has no recall system. Here's my case and if you like it vote as it would help in many ways and this same technology is used with personal health records too, the Withings WiFi scale uses it, and there's a working solution for the same technology to authenticate a physician with the new DEA rules for controlled substances. Nothing upsets me more than to have someone die as a recalled product was missed and used in surgery. Scan that stent first! I have about 30 posts on this and when the recalls come up, it's time for another post for the cause.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/10/tracking-medical-device-recalls-with.html
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/05/microsoft-tags-microsoft-msdn-posts.html
Here's the e-prescribing solution:
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/razcode-microsoft-tags-using-smart.html
Here's how you connect Google Health and HealthVault PHRs so you could store the device tag right in the PHR too!
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/digital-health-tokens-connect-google.html
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/connecting-healthvaultgoogle-health-and.html
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