The government has issued an alert about insulin pumps manufactured by American medical equipment giant Medtronic, saying they are vulnerable to hackers who can connect to them and control the delivery of insulin into a patient’s body.
The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO) alert comes less than a week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about cybersecurity risks of these insulin pumps. With around 73 million cases in 2017, India is the world’s diabetes capital and hundreds of patients have been using Medtronic’s MiniMed 508 and MiniMed Paradigm series of insulin pumps that are susceptible to remote access.
The Paradigm series can communicate with other devices such as blood glucose meters, glucose sensor transmitters and USB devices using wireless radio frequency. “Any unauthorised person with special technical skills and equipment can connect wirelessly to a nearby insulin pump to change settings and control the delivery of the hormone,” says the CDSCO alert. Significantly higher or lower levels of insulin administered to a patient can prove life-threatening.
However, according to Medtronic’s official statement, doctors and patients are appraised of the recommended security precautions to be taken while using Medtronic pumps. “These include paying attention to any notification, alarms or any other alert that crops up. These insulin pumps are not being recalled in India. The government has only given out a precautionary security notification.” But doctors said they had not been informed about such security precautions by the firm.
We have not been informed by the company yet,” said Dr Amerta Ghosh, a diabetologist at Fortis C-DOC in Delhi’s Nehru Place. “We have almost 250 patients who are using this device under our guidance. These are prescribed more for patients with Type 1 diabetes. It is also given in critical cases such as pregnant diabetic women or those diabetics who are also suffering from kidney diseases.” The price of these insulin pumps range anywhere from Rs 1-4 lakh, depending on its functions and added features. These devices are not covered under any health insurance scheme in India
