A practical procedure to prevent electromagnetic interference with electronic medical equipment.
Hanada E, Takano K, Antoku Y, Matsumura K, Watanabe Y, Nose Y. · 2002
View Original AbstractHospitals need systematic EMF control procedures because electromagnetic interference can disrupt life-critical medical equipment.
Plain English Summary
Japanese researchers systematically investigated electromagnetic interference (EMI) in hospitals, examining how radio waves, cell phones, and other electromagnetic sources disrupt critical medical equipment like pacemakers and monitoring devices. They identified seven key interference sources and developed a five-step procedure for hospitals to measure, control, and prevent EMI problems. This research matters because electromagnetic interference can cause life-threatening malfunctions in medical devices that patients depend on.
Why This Matters
This study highlights a critical safety issue that receives far too little attention: electromagnetic fields don't just potentially affect human biology, they demonstrably interfere with the electronic medical devices we rely on to save lives. The researchers found that hospitals face EMI from multiple sources, including external radio waves, cell phones, and even the building's own steel infrastructure. What this means for you is that the same electromagnetic environment affecting sensitive medical equipment in hospitals is the environment we all live in daily. The difference is that hospitals are now developing systematic procedures to measure and control EMF exposure to protect critical equipment. If electromagnetic fields can disrupt sophisticated medical devices designed with interference protections, we should take seriously their potential effects on the bioelectric systems in our bodies, which have no such engineered protections.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
We have systematically investigated the causes of electromagnetic interference (EMI)
The factors involved in EMI were determined as follows: 1) Electric-field intensity induced by invas...
From the results of our investigation, we developed a following practical procedure to prevent EMI. ...
Show BibTeX
@article{e_2002_a_practical_procedure_to_2149,
author = {Hanada E and Takano K and Antoku Y and Matsumura K and Watanabe Y and Nose Y.},
title = {A practical procedure to prevent electromagnetic interference with electronic medical equipment.},
year = {2002},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11777312/},
}