The impact of the internet of Things on implanted medical devices including pacemakers, and ICDs

Abstract

The Internet of Things describes multiple distributed systems where all (or most) everyday items include embedded systems in order to connect to the internet. This paradigm has the potential to revolutionize global industry and daily life. Healthcare is once such industry where the Internet of Things may provide great advantages to patients, care givers, and medical institutions. As the number of radio frequency emitters increases under this new paradigm public health and safety must also be taken into account. This paper explores the electromagnetic interference on implantable cardiac rhythm management devices caused by RFID interrogators. A standard electromagnetic compatibility test framework is proposed in order to diagnose the possibility of interference. Also, a mitigation method is proposed and tested. It is shown that the proposed method can reduce the incidence of clinically significant interference by nearly 60%.