ECRI, a nonprofit health services research agency, continues to recommend against lifting cell phone restrictions completely in healthcare settings. Many hospitals have questioned whether restrictions are necessary based on media reports that imply cell phone use does not create enough electromagnetic interference (EMI) to threaten the performance of medical equipment.

ECRI (www.ecri.org) examined the available evidence and published its perspectives on ways in which the media reports may be misleading. Some news articles suggest that newer cell phones do not produce significant EMI and that improvements to medical devices have reduced risks to the point where usage restrictions are unnecessary. However, there is published evidence demonstrating that while risks may have diminished somewhat, they have not dissappeared entirely, and well-documented cases of cell phones affecting medical equipment do exist.

ECRI's examination of several published studies, along with incidents reported by healthcare facilities, reveals that EMI from cell phones does, in fact, still pose a risk to medical devices. ECRI recommends a balance between the risk of cell phone use and the potential benefits. They also encourage healthcare facilities to establish policies with a full understanding of the facts.
The article also discusses alternative communication technologies that hospitals are considering, including microcell systems, low-power cordless phones, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These technologies provide many of the same benefits as a conventional cell phone, but carry less risk of EMI.

For information on purchasing the December 2006 issue of Health Devices or for information about Health Devices System membership, contact ECRI by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-1298, USA; by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891; by e-mail at communications(at)ecri.org; or by fax at (610) 834-1275. ECRI's European office can be contacted at info(at)ecri.org.uk, ECRI's Asia-Pacific office can be contacted at asiapacific(at)ecri.org, and ECRI's Middle Eastern office can be contacted at middleeast(at)ecri.org.

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