The Effects of RFID on Medical Devices

Published: February 15, 2013

Commonly encountered electromagnetic (EM) environments have been found to affect the performance of some implantable medical devices. Such devices include cardiac pulse generators, neurostimulators, drug infusion pumps, and glucose and cardiac monitors. Adverse EM environmental effects (E3) include the undesired responses of these devices to the environments in which they must function. The growing use of RFID in public areas requires the same attention be given to E3 testing. In this session, hear a brief history of E3 testing for implantable medical devices, as well as a discussion of recent publications indicating the need for establishing RFID testing protocols for medical devices, and an update on a health-care initiative (HCI) to develop testing protocols—a collaboration between AIM Global, Met Labs and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Ralph Herkert, PE, Senior Research Engineer, Georgia Tech