The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted recently to adopt technical rules that are intended to protect patients who use wireless medical telemetry devices (eg. wireless heart, blood pressure and respiratory monitors) from radio signal interference. The FCC decision (in WT Docket No. 02-8) deals, among other items, with the 1.4 GHz band in which a large number of new wireless medical telemetry service licensees will be located.
"We applaud FCC's extraordinary attention to this matter," said American Hospital Association (AHA) Executive Vice President Rick Pollack. "This decision puts patient safety first. While it is not typical for the FCC to adopt such detailed technical rules, their involvement was a necessary and appreciated component to advance patient safety."
The need for dedicated spectrum allocated to wireless medical telemetry first gained widespread attention in 1998 when a Dallas TV station, in testing its new digital TV transmitter, knocked out of operation low-power heart monitors at several Dallas-area hospitals that had been tuned to operate in the previously vacant TV channel. Fortunately, no patients were harmed.
The AHA, in conjunction with wireless medical telemetry services (WMTS) manufacturers, communications trade associations and FCC staff, formed a task force after the Dallas incident. The task force's report on the issue formed the basis for the FCC's initial WMTS ruling in June 2000 and the task force's subsequent work was extremely instrumental in the additional technical rulings.
The FCC's latest ruling establishes eligibility for the use of bands adjacent to the radio spectrum allocated for wireless medical telemetry and generally adopts the technical restrictions on the use of those adjacent bands that were proposed by the AHA's task force. Those limits were developed to protect the wireless medical telemetry services from interference.
