February 08, 2006

Turn Your Cellphone *On* In the Hospital

A Yale University Study finds that:
Using mobile telephones in hospitals reduces the error rate in medical care because of more timely communication and rarely causes electronic magnetic interference, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month...

The senior author, Keith Ruskin, M.D., associate professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery, said the electronic interference from mobile telephone was a problem in the past because of older telemetry equipment and analog cell phones.

"The new digital cell phones used much higher power and operate at a different frequency," Ruskin said. "The small risks of electromagnetic interference between mobile telephones and medical devices should be weighed against the potential benefits of improved communication."

[thanks Chris MacDonald]

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