That&#x27;s exactly right. The article mentions that the doctors were fortunate enough to have <i>five minutes</i> during which they could reboot the device. If they were in the middle of some other procedure that had tighter time constraints, a reboot could have <i>easily</i> killed the patient.<p>Just like the Therac-25, this isn&#x27;t about a single problem (the antivirus or the race condition in the Therac-25&#x27;s software). Designing for safety has to happen at all levels of design. Using Windows (or Linux, or any other complex OS) in a medical device shows that the designer wasn&#x27;t even considering the safety of major parts of their design.<p>Designing medical devices with an OS that can be infected with malware (and thus need an antivirus) is the same kind of idiocy that puts a car&#x27;s steering and brakes on the same CAN bus as the music player and emergency radio. It&#x27;s a sign that the designer needs either more education or a different job before someone is injured or killed.