A medical system that monitors patients crashed during a heart surgery because the virusscanner performed a scheduled scan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports. According to the FDA the affected computer was a programmable diagnostics computer from Merge Healthcare.
The system consists of a computer that contains data on the patient and a computer that takes care of monitoring the patient. The two are connected through a serial interface. During a heart surgery both computers lost contact and the monitor went blank. While the patient was anesthetized this caused a delay of 5 minutes because the system had to be rebooted. When analyzed it was discovered that the delay was caused by a virusscanner that performed a scheduled scan.
The FDA reports the safety of the patient was in danger. The developer of the computer noted that the hospital didn't follow the instructions concerning the installation of antivirus software. These instructions state that the antivirus has to be installed in such as way that there are no effects during an operation, by e.g. not scanning patient data and medical images. Therefore Merge Healthcare argues the issue is not caused the computers but by the staff controlling it.
The patient didn't notice the issue nevertheless, the heart surgery was successfully finished.
