Chapter 55 - Electromagnetic interference in healthcare environment

Abstract

The density of users on the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum has been increasing mainly because of the expansion of wireless-based services. The desire for mobility and anywhere continuous connectivity creates conflicts between a variety of EM waves energy and intelligent devices or even human tissue. Despite the efforts by manufacturers to harden clinical devices to the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI), reports of incidents of interference to previously unaffected medical devices appear in medical and scientific literature and anecdotally. Therefore, the role and knowledge base of clinical engineering practitioners must expand to include command understanding and proper management of these ever-increasing challenges. According to research conducted at McGill University by Segal B. and colleagues “Wireless technology has been evolving from networks with a small number of relatively high-power sources to networks with a large number of relatively low-power sources. This has made characterizing the hospital EM environment a complicated process and the associated potential for EMI difficult to determine. There is no globally accepted comprehensive protocol to evaluate the function/malfunction of medical devices exposed to radio-frequency (RF) fields. In addition, there is often uncertainty in determining the degree of clinical impact that a malfunction has.”