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FDA warns of early Y2K problems Computer date bug may affect two medical devices in 1999 ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30  The government is warning hospitals, emergency personnel and health care practitioners that the kind of computer date bugs expected to produce problems on Jan. 1, 2000, could affect two products a year early.

THE FOOD and Drug Administrations advisory, issued Tuesday, said the potential problems with the two medical devices do not pose any immediate health threat to patients. But they could create confusion and the potential for incorrect records, the FDA said. The problems involving switching from the year 1998 to 1999, affecting the ability of the products to display, print or store the correct time and date of when they are in use, the FDA said. One product, Hewlett-Packards 43100A/43200A external defibrillator, will defibrillate properly but will print out set clock rather than the month, day, hour and minute that it is in use. The manufacturer advises that the clock be reset to 1998  not1999 after which it will work properly for the year 1999. At the end of 1999, it will have to be reset again  from 1998 to 2000. Approximately 39,000 of these defibrillators were sold worldwide between 1985 and 1992, the FDA said. The second product is Invivo Research Inc.s Millennia 3500 multiparameter patient monitor. To avoid a clock problem, the manufacturer advises health-care personnel to neither test nor reset the devices on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1. The company also has software to fix the problem. More than 2,000 of these devices have been installed worldwide since June of 1996. The FDA has been working with seven manufacturers of 15 various medical devices to investigate whether they will work in the year 2000. So far, only Invivo Research and Hewlett-Packard have verified that some problems with their clocks could occur.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 31, 1998

Answers

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 31, 1998.

It's starting......

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 04, 1999.