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

Software Freedom Podcast

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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1. Welcome to the podcast (00:00:00)

2. Interview with Karen Sandler (00:01:14)

3. Closing words (00:37:16)

4. Outro (00:37:59)