Pts with pacemakers and ICDs needn't fear Wi-Fi

This is a report on one of the sessions at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in which cardiac surgeon Dr. Fritz Mellert presented the results of his study of Wi-Fi transmitters and their possible effect on pacemakers and implantable defibrillators at the University of Bonn, Germany. It should be noted that this study was free of commercial funding.

According to Internal Medicine News, Dr Mellert...

…placed 25 pacemakers and 22 implantable cardioverter defibrillators made by all of the major device manufacturers at varying distances from wireless local area network (WLAN) transmitting antennas in order to study the potential for electromagnetic interference with device function. He subjected the cardiac devices to WLAN transmitting powers of both 100 mW, the upper limit in Europe, and 1,000 mW, the maximum output power permitted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The results showed no evidence of interference with the all key programming and telemetry functions. Dr Mellert maintains that because of shielding, protection algorithms, and other protocols, these devices are protected against Wi-Fi interference. He said, “No patient must be fearful when using Wi-Fi in public or a hotel.”

The one caveat noted was that certain noncritical pacemaker programming functions could occur at the high-output standards permitted in the US, if the Wi-Fi antenna is situated less than 10 cm from the device. Based on this finding, Dr Mellert took the conservative view that Wi-Fi access points no be located near outpatient pacemaker clinics.