Study of Low Frequency Electromagnetic Interference Problems in Hospital Environment

This work provides a study on the impacts of electromagnetic radiation from electrical devices in hospitals (medical equipment, mains and appliances). The data analysed were obtained in several hospitals in Iraq. The study includes two parts: (1) A survey focused on the evaluation of the hospital workers’ perception and understanding of the electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem, and (2) Data regarding a campaign of measurements aiming to identify the levels of magnetic fields in a number of hospitals.This work aims at clarifying the need to produce adequate electromagnetic interference guidelines that can be applied in Iraqi hospitals. The survey has been conducted in more than forty hospitals, taking into consideration the following factors:• Workers’ knowledge on electromagnetic interference issues.• Conclusions of previous studies of electromagnetic compatibility in the hospitals.• Observable occurrence of electromagnetic interference in medical devices.• Identification of the source of the interference.The results highlight two main problems: (i) a lack of understanding the EMI problem dominates the survey in most hospitals and (ii) field magnitudes over the immunity level allowed by international guidelines could be present in some hospital units. For that reason, a regulation must be issued and adopted in order to avoid the problems of interference in the hospitals in Iraq.