Calls made on cellular phones have no negative impact on hospital medical devices, according to Mayo Clinic researchers. The new finding has dispelled// the long-held notion that they are unsafe to use in health care facilities.
In a study published in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers say normal use of cell phones results in no noticeable interference with patient care equipment. Three hundred tests were performed over a five-month period in 2006, without a single problem incurred.
Involved in the study were two cellular phones, which used different technologies from different carriers and 192 medical devices. Tests were performed at Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester.
The study’s authors say the findings should prompt hospitals to alter or abandon their bans on cell phone use. Mayo Clinic leaders are reviewing the facility’s cell phone ban because of the study’s findings, says David Hayes, M.D., of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and a study author.
Cell phone bans inconvenience patients and their families who must exit hospitals to place calls, the study’s authors say.
The latest study revisits two earlier studies that were done ‘in vitro’ (i.e., the equipment wasn’t connected to the patients), which also found minimal interaction from cell phones used in health care facilities. Dr. Hayes says the latest study bolsters the notion that cells phones are safe to use in hospitals.
Other Technology-Related Proceedings Articles Explore Concerns for Patients
Two other pieces in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings also address whether technological devices interfere with patient care equipment. Unlike the cellular phone study, the other reports detail technological devices that caused patient care equipment to malfunction.
A letter to the editor published in the journal details the first known case of a portable CD player causing an abnormal e
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