Best of the ISP-Lists

Wi-Fi Cardiology

If you have an opportunity to provide wireless Internet service within a hospital, treat that opportunity with caution. Members of the ISP-Wireless list discuss how to do it right and what can go wrong.

[October 4, 2001]

On the ISP-Wireless list in September, EB asked,

"Does anyone have any information on the effect that 802.11b equipment might have on medical devices? A friend who's a cardiologist asked me about using iPAQs with 802.11b cards to assist his nursing staff."

JT suggested that it shouldn't be much of a problem:

"I know of a few hospitals with WLAN/PtP gear installed-not to mention every VA Hospital in the country."

Others warned that it's best to keep it outdoors, and to be very careful indoors:

[MH asked] "How much liability insurance do you have? It's going to be a case by case problem, depending on the type of hospital and the other technology already in place.

A major cardiac hospital will already have a lot of 'telemetry' in place (portable wireless EKG/other monitors) that you may have to check on interference with. Transmitters may also interfere with very sensitive equipment used in emergency rooms and recovery rooms like pacemaker programmers, intra-aortic balloon pumps, etc. Using an omni and clients in an administration or general medical setting should not be a problem, and pointing a PtP or PtMP system to a hospital's roof for access would not be a problem.

Still, I would not want wireless omnis or clients in critical patient care areas, recovery rooms, emergency rooms, or laboratory environments. I have seen cell phones, two-way radios, and other RF gear interfere with the equipment used in these areas in fatal ways: a rural Illinois ambulance tech installed a linear amp on a CB radio, and when he keyed up, he shut down everything in the emergency room, plus the cardiac floor above it.

My advice? If you install things in a medical facility, get the 'Biomedical Engineering' department involved, and watch things closely for interference for a while."

[AM agreed] "I would imagine that the issue becomes indoor versus outdoor use. Outdoors, I think you are okay, but I would seek the approval of hospital administrators/authorities before using it indoors. I doubt anyone wants to set an AP on top of a cat scanner: the issue indoors is proximity. Cell phones are banned for that reason."

[RB noted] "Here are a few sites with information on the use of wireless in hospitals:

http://tie.telemed.org/telemed101/topics/wireless.pdf

http://www.pdamd.com/features/interference.xml

http://www.wow-com.com/consumer/faq/articles.cfm?ID=102

http://www.worldwi.com/wireless_hospitals.html

http://www.internetwk.com/trends/trends082498.htm

http://www.ce-mag.com/archive/1999/mayjune/Grant.html

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/emc/persp.html"

—End

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