Wireless patient devices at risk from proposed Internet use

AP/Chicago Tribune, May 14, 2008

The proposed use of unoccupied TV airwaves for high-speed Internet service across the country could affect the signal that monitors critically ill hospital patients. The medical community says that the move could result in possible interference from unlicensed portable gizmos operating in a nearby spectrum. Hospitals and medical device makers say using empty channels for unlicensed uses could disrupt the monitoring of patients' heart rates, blood oxygen levels and other vital signs at medical facilities.