Lab Will Test for RFID Interference With Medical Devices
October 27th, 2009
DOT Med News:
October 26, 2009
by Brendon Nafziger, Writer
The Georgia Tech Research Institute announced plans this month to test whether a common tracking system used in hospitals and warehouses interferes with medical devices.
The Atlanta-based applied research organization is developing protocols for its decade-old medical device testing lab to investigate the effect of radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology on implantable medical devices like defibrillators and pacemakers.
Although RFID is a ubiquitous technology that uses radio waves to track items in hospitals, stores and libraries to monitor inventory and prevent theft, nobody really knows if it has the potential to interfere with sensitive, and lifesaving, devices like implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs).
"There's a potential there for interference," Ralph Herkert, director of GTRI's Medical Device Test Center, tells DOTmed News. "Basically, pacemakers and defibs are monitoring bodily functions, so they have sensing circuitry," he continues. "Any time you have sensing circuitry, you have the possibility for an interfering signal to get there."
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