Radio Tags May Cause Hospitals’ Lifesaving Equipment To Malfunction: Study

Radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs), commonly used in hospitals for tracking supplies may prove potentially dangerous for the patients, a team of Dutch scientists claim. The radio waves generated by the wireless systems actually interfere in the working of certain lifesaving equipments like respirators, external pacemakers and kidney dialysis machines and simply switch them off, according to the news research.

Similar to tags used for security purposes like on passports and anti-theft devices, the RFID tags used in the hospitals to track medical supplies generate signals with different radio frequencies to "communicate" with one another.

RFID’s are manufactured under two categories, ‘active’ RFIDs (which transmits information) and ‘passive’ RFIDs (those powered by an external machine that assist reading).

The current study conducted by at Vrije University in Amsterdam, the researchers evaluated the functioning of 41 lifesaving medical equipments – including pacemakers, ventilators, IV pumps and anesthesiadefine machines.

Three tests conducted on each machine, the researchers moved three types of RFID tags manufactured by two different manufacturers at different distances and judged the medical devices’ performance thereafter.

Out of a total of 123 tests conducted, 34 electromagnetic interference (EMI) incidents were recorded – of which 24 were deemed as either "significant" or "hazardous" by an independent panel of intensive care doctors, the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports.

In certain incidents reported, a distance of over 10 inches (between the RFID and the medical equipment) was sufficient to either switch off the devices or to change their settings.

Additionally, at times, the radio waves generated by the RFIDs were powerful enough to completely stop the working of syringe pumps, cause external pacemakers to malfunction and to halt dialysis machines besides often switching them off, researchers found.

Highlighting the dangers associated with otherwise beneficial technologies, study’s lead author Dr. Donald Berwick, professor at the Harvard University's School of Public Health said, "The study highlights the fact that we really need our healthcare system to understand technologies are always double-edged."

"They can bring benefit but usually also have concurrent hazards, so we need to be sophisticated and wise about these technologies and how we use them," Berwick suggested.