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RFID could disrupt medical devices, say researchers
Wireless tech fails to get clean bill of health

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Wednesday 25 June 2008

Radio frequency ID (RFID) technology can interfere with medical equipment, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study by six Dutch scientists has found electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by the track and trace chips has the potential to cause disruption to medical devices - which could be a potential hazard to patients.

RFID tagged wristbands are currently used in some hospitals to ensure correct procedures are carried out on patients. But the future of healthcare is likely to involve far more RFID-style tech, according to a recent report by Ofcom, which included a prediction that in-body and on-body wireless networks could become the norm over the next decade for monitoring patients.

The Dutch scientists looked at both active (i.e. info transmitting) and passive (i.e. requiring a reader device) RFID systems and found 34 'incidents' were triggered out of 123 EMI tests - of which 22 were classed as hazardous, two as significant and 10 as light, according to a critical care adverse events scale. The average distance between the RFID reader and the medical device in all the EMI incidents was 30cm.

Passive RFID systems caused more incidents than active signals: 26 incidents in 41 EMI tests (63 per cent), compared to eight incidents in 41 EMI tests (20 per cent).

A report abstract states: "In a controlled nonclinical setting, RFID induced potentially hazardous incidents in medical devices. Implementation of RFID in the critical care environment should require on-site EMI tests and updates of international standards."

The tests took place during May 2006 at the Academic Medical Centre in the University of Amsterdam using an active 125kHz RFID system and passive 868MHz in the proximity of 41 medical devices in 17 categories with 22 different manufacturers. Three tests were carried out on each piece of medical equipment.