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CRITICAL CARE AND TRAUMA

Evaluation of Bluetooth as a Replacement for Cables in Intensive Care and Surgery

Mats K. E. B. Wallin, MD MSc^*,, and Samson Wajntraub, MSc Section Editor

*Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Karolinska Hospital and the Division of Medical Engineering, Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Technology, Karolinska Insititute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Mats Wallin MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Karolinska Hospital, S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. Address email to mats.wallin{at}labtek.ki.se

In today’s intensive care and surgery, a great number of cables are attached to patients. These cables can make the care and nursing of the patient difficult. Replacing them with wireless communications technology would facilitate patient care. Bluetooth is a modern radio technology developed specifically to replace cables between different pieces of communications equipment. In this study we sought to determine whether Bluetooth is a suitable replacement for cables in intensive care and during surgery with respect to electromagnetic compatibility. The following questions were addressed: Does Bluetooth interfere with medical equipment? And does the medical equipment decrease the quality of the Bluetooth communication? A Bluetooth link, simulating a patient monitoring system, was constructed with two laptops. The prototype was then used in laboratory and clinical tests according to American standards at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. The tests, which included 44 different pieces of medical equipment, indicated that Bluetooth does not cause any interference. The tests also showed that the hospital environment does not affect the Bluetooth communication negatively.

IMPLICATIONS: Bluetooth, a new radio technology transmitting at 2.4 GHz, was tested in a clinical setting. The study showed that a single Bluetooth link was robust and electromagnetically compatible with the tested electronic medical devices.

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Anesthesia & Analgesia® is published for the International Anesthesia Research Society® by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins with the assistance of Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press®. Copyright 2006 by the International Anesthesia Research Society. Online ISSN: 1526-7598   Print ISSN: 0003-2999