Risk of patient injury due to electromagnetic-interference malfunctions: estimation and minimization

Healthcare needs wireless informatics. To implement this need safely, hospitals require suitable wireless-EMC policies. However, most lack such policies, partly because some are unsure that patients really risk being injured by EMI malfunctions. Factors affecting this risk are critically overviewed, specifically the probabilities: (1) that RF sources operate at given locations; (2) that fields from such sources propagate to a susceptible medical device; (3) that this device malfunctions; and (4) that the malfunction causes patient injury. Only qualitative estimates of the resultant overall EMI-injury risk are possible. This risk is probably very small but must be minimized. Ways to do so are critically overviewed.