WEDNESDAY, June 25, (News Locale) - Using radio frequency identification devices in hospital environments may increase the risk of damage to vital medical equipment like ventilators and threaten the safety of patients, a new study has found. 

Researchers at the Vrije University in the Netherlands arrived at this conclusion after conducting experiments in lab settings and not in hospital settings. Nevertheless, the team led by Remko van der Togt says the danger posed by RFID devices to life support systems in hospitals is very clear and needs to ne looked into.

The tests for the study were performed in a one-bed patient room in an intensive care unit (ICU). However it must be noted that there were no patients present while the experiment was conducted.

The researchers tested out 41 medical devices including external pacemakers, mechanical ventilators, infusion/syringe pumps, dialysis devices, defibrillators, monitors and anesthesia devices.

The potential for harmful electromagnetic interference (EMI) was analyzed by three tests on all 41 devices totaling 123 tests overall. The researchers found 34 EMI incidents overall among which 22 were classified as hazardous, 2 as significant, and 10 as light.

Incidents that were classed as hazardous included total switch-off and change in set ventilation rate of mechanical ventilators; complete stoppage of syringe pumps; malfunction of external pacemakers; complete stoppage of renal replacement devices, and interference in the atrial and ventricular electrogram curve read by the pacemaker programmer.

“Implementation of RFID in the ICU and other similar health care environments should require on-site EMI tests in addition to updated international standards," the authors wrote in the June 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

An RFID tag is basically applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Many studies have revealed that these tags have the potential to interfere with pacemakers and other medical equipment.

However this study although conducted in lab settings is another pointer to the fact that usage of RFID in hospital settings may need to be reconsidered.