WASHINGTON-Efforts are under way in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission to protect wireless heart monitors and other medical telemetry devices from interference.
This week, the FCC will consider a notice of proposed rule making to allocate spectrum on a primary basis for medical telemetry equipment, and to establish rules for a new wireless medical telemetry service.
The action follows on the heels of legislation introduced late last month in Congress before the Fourth of July recess. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced a bill to set aside blocks of TV spectrum for use by medical telemetry devices. The bill was introduced at the urging of Spacelabs Medical, a manufacturer of medical telemetry equipment located in Inslee’s district.
Medical telemetry devices long have been secondary users in the TV and land mobile bands, using free spectrum for a variety of purposes, such as heart monitors used by medical personnel to monitor the progress of patients suffering from heart attacks or strokes. These devices are wireless, allowing patients to be more comfortable since they are not tethered to a machine.
The system worked well until last year when TV broadcasters began converting to digital offerings. When a Dallas station converted, it knocked out the medical telemetry devices at Baylor University Medical Center. The Baylor hospital was forced to reprogram all of its devices to a new frequency. Since medical telemetry devices are secondary users, they must move if interference occurs.
Following the Baylor incident, the FCC began working on a plan to solve the medical telemetry problem and the NPRM is the result of those efforts. Also prodding the FCC is a proposal by the Land Mobile Communications Council for low-power frequencies as part of the refarming proceeding. Medical telemetry devices use the low-power offsets that will no longer be available if the LMCC proposal is approved.
The Inslee legislation would allow spectrum to be set aside for medical purposes, but the specific spectrum has not yet been identified because it would be different in each media market, said Inslee spokeswoman Sara O’Connell.
What the FCC will propose is not yet known, but Laura Smith of the Industrial Telecommunications Association said one proposal would be to move medical telemetry devices to the spectrum occupied by TV channel 37.
ITA hopes the FCC will move quickly on whatever it proposes so that the low-power proposal can also be addressed.
The FCC’s plan is expected to be based, at least in part, on a report submitted by the American Hospital Association but will make some changes in frequency allocations because the spectrum proposed by AHA was not workable.
It is not surprising that it has taken so long to come up with a solution, said Don Vasek, director of government relations for the Personal Communications Industry Association. “Whenever you are looking for a new service (and since virgin spectrum is rare) some accommodations have to be made,” Vasek said.
