A report by the American Medical Association has claimed that healthcare applications using RFID can induce electromagetic interference in medical equipment. In 123 tests, RFID induced 34 EMI incidents, 22 of them "hazardous". The report concludes that international standards may need to be updated in the light of the risk.
The work was carried out at the University of Amsterdam and the abstract is reported here. The report has also been followed up by RFID Journal here.
Clearly, given that RFID is already finding its way as an application into hospitals this study needs to be followed up. The idea that international standards need to be updated may be a concern, given the glacial pace at which standards usually move. I would guess there would need to be wider studies confirming the RFID electromagnetic interference issue on medical equipment before much will happen on the standards front.
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Working in the registration business, Mark Kaganov has assisted dozens of companies around the world in certifying their ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and ISO 14001 systems. For a number of years, Mark Kaganov has been certified as a QMS Lead Auditor with the International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA), England and an EMS Lead Auditor with the Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB) in the US. The author has near 25 years experience in the development, implementation and management of QMS and EMS.
Posted by ISO 13485 Implementation | December 10, 2008 2:13 PM
Posted on December 10, 2008 14:13