Sent by a colleague on another list:
Excerpt from <http://www.njo.com/burlington/news/digest_0316-9.html>
One thing is certain. Pacemakers will continue to
work on Jan. 1, 2000.
"There's no question that there are computer chips
that operate pacemakers, but they are not date
sensitive," said Dick Reid, a spokesman for
Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis, one of the nation's
largest pacemaker manufacturers.
"Nobody walking around with a pacemaker today
has anything to worry about," he said. "I'd be more
concerned about whether my bank is going to be
ready for the year 2000."
If there is a Y2K issue that relates to pacemakers,
said Reid, it's in the equipment used by
cardiologists to monitor and reprogram the
implanted heart stimulators.
"The programmer the doctor uses to treat the
patient from the outside does have date-sensitive
chips in it, but at this point we've upgraded or
replaced all of the programmers we have out in the
United States," Reid said.
"Domestically, there's no longer a problem. The
issue for us is equipment of ours that's in use
overseas, because that's gone out through a
series of distributors and we're working to make
sure they can bring those machines into
compliance."
Reid seems to be speaking for the industry as a whole. I wonder what Medtronic's
lawyers think?
Graham
"If you get their heads out of the sand don't forget to get them to brush
the sand out of their eyes! Awareness DOESN'T equal understanding."
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Graham P P Ride, Cybermetrix Ltd.
NEW! - Year 2000 Information Service on
<http://www.cybermetrix.co.uk/plusinfo.html>
Tel +44 (0)161 439 0480 - Fax +44 (0)161 439 1912
Year 2000 services to Health & SMEs & maximising the benefits of the Internet
http://www.cybermetrix.co.uk
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