It's not. It's a full diagnostic interface. Someone with the right software and my serial number could reconfigure it from across the room.
BLE replaces the previous diagnostic interface, which was some form of near-field. You had to have a puck resting within a few inches, going to a several decade old toughbook. My device supports both. It's just in the last couple years that UCLA got the BLE equipment, and sometimes a doctor will whip out the old gear if they feel more confident with it.
When I had the pacemaker first implanted, there was a reliability problem they had to do a second operation to fix it. The pacemaker failed to "capture" my ventricle a few times when it should have. It turned out to be a loose lead connection, but the device's impedance diagnostics didn't make the issue immediately obvious. My overall case was weird enough that UCLA did a case study about it, so for the revision procedure they had a vendor rep in the room to help out just in case. She was holding a tablet and pushing buttons that would make my heart temporarily stop.
Now my AV nerves mostly work again, so the pacemaker can't stop my heart if it wanted to. It can only increase my heart rate, and report unusual patterns to my doctor. Also, if someone did somehow mess with it, holding a strong magnet near it will force it into safe mode.
That's fascinating, and very unfortunate how lax the security likely is for an organ keeping you alive.
You would think if you can detect a strong magnet, you could use that to turn the wireless on and off... Like how holding a power button on a phone turns it off, but holding longer can do a factory reset or what have you.
BLE replaces the previous diagnostic interface, which was some form of near-field. You had to have a puck resting within a few inches, going to a several decade old toughbook. My device supports both. It's just in the last couple years that UCLA got the BLE equipment, and sometimes a doctor will whip out the old gear if they feel more confident with it.
When I had the pacemaker first implanted, there was a reliability problem they had to do a second operation to fix it. The pacemaker failed to "capture" my ventricle a few times when it should have. It turned out to be a loose lead connection, but the device's impedance diagnostics didn't make the issue immediately obvious. My overall case was weird enough that UCLA did a case study about it, so for the revision procedure they had a vendor rep in the room to help out just in case. She was holding a tablet and pushing buttons that would make my heart temporarily stop.
Now my AV nerves mostly work again, so the pacemaker can't stop my heart if it wanted to. It can only increase my heart rate, and report unusual patterns to my doctor. Also, if someone did somehow mess with it, holding a strong magnet near it will force it into safe mode.