Mobile phone-friendly zones would make life easier in hospitals
The use of mobile phones in hospitals should be restricted because they can interfere with medical equipment, however the interference is not as common as suspected according to research results published in the current issue of The Medical Journal of Australia.
Mobile phone use is restricted in hospitals because of a perceived risk of interference with medical equipment, which could endanger the safety of patients. Many of these restrictions relate to outdated mobile phone technology, leading to debate as to their validity. Digital mobile phones are now used in Australia.
Dr Nathan Lawrentschuk, Urology research fellow at the Department of Surgery and Urology at the University of Melbourne, and at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg, set out to assess whether interference caused by digital mobile phones is clinically relevant.
The research involved a systematic review of studies conducted between 1966 and 2004 on clinically relevant digital mobile phone electromagnetic interference (EMI) with medical equipment.
Studies were eligible if published in a peer-reviewed journal in English, and if they included testing of digital mobile phones for clinically relevant interference with medical equipment used to monitor or treat patients, but not implantable medical devices.
"In the largest studies, the prevalence of clinically relevant EMI was low. Most clinically relevant EMI occurred when mobile phones were used within 1 metre or medical equipment," Dr Lawrentschuk said.
"The research showed that around 4 per cent of devices tested in any study were susceptible to clinically relevant EMI.
"All studies recommend some type of restriction of mobile phone use in hospitals, with use greater than 1 metre from equipment and restrictions in clinical areas being the most common," Dr Lawrentschuk said.
Dr Lawrentschuk said hospitals could create mobile phone-friendly zones, rather than having patients and relatives huddle outside as they do now.
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.