Radio frequency identification in hospitals could pose risks Posted on July 3rd
(RFID) used to track and trace products could cause critical
care medical devices such as pacemakers and ventilators to
fail, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday.
Electromagnetic interference from the chips caused 22
problems that could endanger patients, ranging from completely
stopping syringe pumps to switching off ventilators, said Erik
Jan van Lieshout, a critical care physician at the Academic
Medical Centre at the University of Amsterdam.
“We wanted to investigate the safety of RFID in healthcare
because it hasn’t been tested,” Van Lieshout, who co-led the
study, told Reuters. “This is the first study ever done on RFID
interference within the hospital.”
Retailers have embraced RFID and the technology is now
moving into healthcare, with spending in the United States the
researchers estimate will grow to $2 billion annually in the
next ten years from a current $90 million.
Potential applications include marking drug blister packs
to prevent counterfeiting, monitoring blood products with
temperature-sensitive blood products and tracking and tracing
important medical equipment and devices, Van Lieshout said.
The potential for harmful electromagnetic interference from
electronic anti-theft surveillance systems on some pacemakers
and defibrillators is also known but the effect on other
critical care devices is not certain, the researchers said.
“Implementation of RFID in the intensive care unit and
other similar health care environments should require on-site
electromagnetic interference tests in addition to updated
international standards,” Van Lieshout and colleagues wrote in
the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Dutch team tested electromagnetic interference of the
two most common RFID systems in a one-bed patient room in an
intensive care unit with no patients.
Their tests on 41 devices identified 22 hazardous
incidents, two they classified as significant and another 10 as
light. Most of the hazardous incidents occurred at about 9.8
inches from the equipment, though they recorded problems up to
six meters away.
A hazardous incident was a problem that could directly
endanger a patient while a significant incident was one
requiring a nurse’s attention but not something that put a
person at immediate risk.
The findings should not dissuade hospitals from using a
technology but they underscore the need to make sure wireless
signals are safe for patients, Van Lieshout added.
“We don’t want to induce a ban on RFID in healthcare
because it has real potential,” he said. “But like other
wireless signals it could endanger your equipment, and thus
your patient.”
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Mariam Karouny)