American National Standard Recommended Practice for an On-Site, Ad Hoc Test Method for Estimating Electromagnetic Immunity of Medical Devices to Radiated Radio-Frequency (RF) Emissions from RF Transmitters

A guide to evaluating electromagnetic immunity of medical devices against radiatedradio-frequency (RF) emissions from common RF transmitters is provided in this recommendedpractice (e.g., two-way radios; walkie-talkies; mobile phones; wireless-enabled tablets, e-readers,laptop computers, and similar devices; RFID readers; networked mp3 players; two-way pagers;and wireless personal digital assistants [PDAs]). A comprehensive test or a guarantee is notprovided by this protocol but, instead, a basic evaluation is given that can help identify medicaldevices that might be particularly vulnerable to interference from common RF transmitters.Existing or newly purchased medical devices can be evaluated by this ad hoc test protocol or theprotocol can be implemented for prepurchase evaluation. This recommended practice applies tomedical devices used in health-care facilities but can also be adapted to medical devices in homehealth-care or mobile health-care settings. It does not apply to implantable medical devices (e.g.,pacemakers and defibrillators), transport environments such as ambulances and helicopters, orRF transmitters rated at more than 8 W of output power. Testing with transmitters greater than8 W in health-care facilities is not recommended because of possible adverse effects on critical care medical devices that are in use in nearby areas of the facility. Finally, in-band RFinterference where the fundamental frequency of an RF transmitter overlaps with frequenciesused by a hospital wireless network or monitoring or other medical device wireless links is notaddressed by this recommended practice.