Posted on 06/25/2008 12:57:30 PM PDT by Dysart
Radio frequency identification tags used by hospitals and health care providers can cause vital lifesaving equipment and machines to malfunction, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.
The tags use wireless technology and often are embedded in medical devices, such as syringe staplers and blood bags, to prevent thefts and losses, as well as to prevent medical errors during surgeries. RFID also is used in drug containers to prevent tampering (Tanner, AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/24).
For the study, researchers in the Netherlands conducted 123 tests to determine the effects of two types of RFID tags on 41 different medical devices, including pacemakers, mechanical ventilators, defibrillators, and monitoring and anesthesia devices. The tests were carried out at different distances, with the shortest distance being less than a foot between the RFID tag and device. The tests did not involve patients and were conducted in an unused room at the University of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Center intensive care unit (Brophy Marcus, USA Today, 6/25).
The study found 34 instances where electromagnetic interferences had occurred, and a group of medical experts concluded that at least 22 of the instances would have been life-threatening (Goldstein, "Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 6/24).
Some of the instances included involuntary malfunctions of breathing machines, mechanical syringe pumps that deliver medications to patients and external pacemakers (AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/24). In instances where malfunctions occurred, the midpoint between the RFID and the device was less than 12 inches(USA Today, 6/25).
Erik Jan van Lieshout, a co-author of the study and a critical care specialist at the Academic Medical Center, said the results of the study show the importance for hospitals to conduct safety tests on items with RFIDs and their effect on medical equipment in their facilities (AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/24).
Donald Berwick, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in an accompanying editorial wrote that hospitals need to conduct additional research on the effects of electromagnetic interferences in intensive care units and called on hospital safety regulators to consider developing guidelines on the issue.
Berwick wrote, "Safety is not a condition, it is a process," adding, "It can only emerge continually in a culture that is alert, cooperative, transparent and resilient when the unexpected happens, as it always will" ("Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 6/24).
He also wrote, "To get a true understanding of the interference these devices might cause in a real critical-care unit, you need to conduct the study with patients present."
However, van Lieshout said there are risks of such types of tests. "It would have been foolish to do this type of study with patients because it could endanger them," he said (USA Today, 6/25).
Peper Long, a spokesperson for FDA, said the agency recognizes the potential for such problems to occur, but it has not received any reports of cases where injuries resulted from electronic interference with medical devices. Long said FDA is conducting tests on some medical devices to "determine their vulnerability and to what extent such vulnerability may be a public health concern" (AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/24).
An abstract of the study and an abstract of Berwick's editorial are available online.
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