 Important
Information Regarding the Year 2000 Transition
Healthcare facilities may make increased use of mobile communication
products, such as cellular telephones and walkie-talkies, during the transition
period to the Year 2000. Therefore, we call your attention to a Safety
Notice that was developed by the Medical Devices Agency of the United
Kingdom on the potential for these products to interfere with medical
equipment.
The Safety Notice reminds healthcare staff that mobile communications
equipment should be used with caution because of potential electromagnetic
interference (EMI) with the operation of electronic medical devices. We
bring this Safety Notice to your attention, so that you can pass it along
to your staff.
This Safety Notice can be found at:
http://www.medical-devices.gov.uk/sn1999(39).htm
We do not intend this alert to override the existing policies of your
facility on the use of mobile communications. However, we do want to remind
you about this potential problem in case it was not considered in your
Year 2000 contingency planning. If necessary, you may want to review your
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) policies and procedures to see if
they adequately manage the risk of EMI with critical medical devices
Information on the general topic of electromagnetic interference with
medical devices may be found on the FDA website at
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/emc.
Recommendations for managing EMC/EMI in healthcare facilities and a model
EMC/EMI policy may be found in Technical Information Report (TIR) 18,
Guidance on electromagnetic compatibility of medical devices for clinical/biomedical
engineers -Part 1: Radiated radio-frequency electromagnetic energy,
available from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
(AAMI). AAMI’s website address is
http://www.aami.org.
Another source of information on this topic is the University of Oklahoma
Center for the Study of Wireless Electromagnetic Compatibility. Their
website address is
http://www.ou.edu/engineering/emc.
Updated December 30, 1999
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