LONDON — The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) in hospitals can interfere with critical care medical equipment according to a study conducted by University of Amsterdam researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The research was done in May 2006 and one active (125 kHz) and one passive (868 MHz) RFID system were operated at about 30 centimeters (1 foot) from each of 41 pieces of medical equipment at the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In 123 tests for electrogmagnetic interference, RFID induced 34 EMI incidents: 22 were classified as hazardous, two as significant, and 10 as light. The passive system at 868 MHz induced 26 of the incidents while the active 125-kHz RFID signal caused 8 incidents in 41 EMI tests.
One conclusion of the study is that the implementation of RFID in the critical care environment should require on-site EMI tests and updates of international standards.
Another result is that it is unlikely that RFID can be adopted quickly for use in patient or medical equipment identification or tracking.
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