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June 24, 2008, 04:19 PM ET
Tracking Tags Could Interfere With Medical Equipment, Researchers Say
Mechanical ventilators could switch off, syringe pumps could stop, and pacemakers could malfunction in the presence of tracking tags called radio-frequency identification devices, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The wearable tags, often called RFID’s, are already in use in applications like electronic toll collectors, and colleges have been experimenting with using them all over campus. They could prove useful for tracking medical devices and pills in hospitals and medical schools as well, so Erik Jan van Lieshout, of the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues in the Netherlands and Austria decided to test their effect on critical-care medical equipment.
The results were not reassuring: In 123 tests, the RFID tags often interfered one-quarter of the time with the electronics of the medical equipment, and the researchers said most of those cases were hazardous. (No patients were involved in the tests.)
“This is a case study of the beast inevitably hidden in every technology: sometimes it purrs and sometimes it bites,” wrote Donald M. Berwick, the president and chief executive of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in an accompanying editorial. “The right enterprise is not to avoid technology but to tame it.” —Lila Guterman
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