Software Freedom Podcast

SFP#19: Why we need Free Software on medical devices with Karen Sandler


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SFP#19: Why we need Free Software on medical devices with Karen Sandler

For this episode Bonnie Mehring met with Karen Sandler to talk about
her relationship with Free Software. Karen depends on a medical device
to keep her heart working. This led her to become an advocate for
Free Software in medical devices.

In her daily life Karen relies on a defibrillator to help her
heart work properly. Like many medical devices this defibrillator uses
proprietary software. Therefore Karen had to put software into her body
over which she has no control in order to let her heart keep working. In
this episode Bonnie Mehring talks to Karen about the problems that are
occuring with non-free medical devices and why it is important to have
Free Software on them. What happens to people when their support ends
when the company that manufactures their devices goes bankrupt? And what is the
connection with Dick Cheney?

Listen to Karen and Bonnie talk about the importance of Free Software on medical devices and find out more about

Karen's heartwarming story of software freedom.

Read more:

  • SFconservancy
  • Outreachy
  • "Abandoned: The human cost of neurotechnology failure" in Nature
  • Honorary Doctorate for Karen Sandler
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    Software Freedom PodcastBy Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)


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