Hospital Equipment Unaffected By Cell Phone Use, Study Finds

Although cellular telephone use has been prohibited in hospitals because of concerns of interference with medical devices, a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers shows that calls made on cellular phones have no negative impact on hospital medical devices, dispelling the long-held notion that they are unsafe to use in health care facilities. Three hundred tests were performed over a five-month period in 2006 using two cellular phones, which used different technologies from different carriers and 192 medical devices. Not a single problem was found. The study's authors say the findings should prompt hospitals to alter or abandon their bans on cell phone use.

Mayo Clinic leaders are reviewing the facility's cell phone ban because of the study's findings, says David Hayes, M.D., of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and a study author.

Cell phone bans inconvenience patients and their families who must exit hospitals to place calls, the study's authors say.

The latest study revisits two earlier studies that were done 'in vitro' (i.e., the equipment wasn't connected to the patients), which also found minimal interaction from cell phones used in health care facilities. Dr. Hayes says the latest study bolsters the notion that cells phones are safe to use in hospitals.

Two other pieces in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings also address whether technological devices interfere with patient care equipment. Unlike the cellular phone study, the other reports detail technological devices that caused patient care equipment to malfunction.

A letter to the editor published in the journal details the first known case of a portable CD player causing an abnormal electrocardiographic (ECG) recording within a hospital setting. The recording returned to normal when the CD player, which the patient was holding close to the ECG lead, was turned off.

Technology also can threaten implantable rhythm devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators outside the hospital setting, according to a journal report. The report outlines two cases of retail stores' anti-theft devices causing people's heart devices to malfunction.

The anti-theft devices are commonly placed near store exits and entrances, triggering an alarm if customers leave with merchandise that was not purchased. In two instances in Tennessee, customers with a pacemaker and an implantable cardiac defibrillator experienced adverse reactions after nearing anti-theft devices.

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