Study: RFID tags may scramble hospital equipment

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A study cautions that radio frequency chips can interfere with hospital equipment. While researchers identified 22 "hazardous" cases of interference, the head of an RFID industry group says the likelihood of injury is low and the study demonstrates a need for industry standards.

A new study is raising questions over how radio frequency identification chips could be interacting with hospital equipment. The report, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests RFID chips could cause some medical devices to fail when in close contact.

RFID chips have grown in popularity for corporate inventory tracking, library management and even passport data control. They also power many cities' transit payment systems and are used for animal identification and store theft control. More recently, some hospitals have begun using the technology to monitor medical products and other hospital resources.

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[26 Jun 2008 08:22]