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Medical telemetry systems include wireless devices worn by patients that continuously measure vital signs transmitting data to a central location alerting nurses and physicians to the patient’s status. Losing your mobile phone signal during the rush hour commute is inconvenient; if a medical telemetry system monitoring a critically ill patient loses its signal, the result may be life threatening.

In 2000, the FCC allocated spectrum (channel 37) for a Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) that protects life-critical equipment to operate without interference from televisions or other devices that may interrupt their signal. Prior to this, medical telemetry devices operated solely in the "white spaces" as allowed by the FCC. Some hospitals have continued to utilize this equipment for life critical patient monitoring.

Consumer technology groups are lobbying the FCC to secure unlicensed use of the TV white spaces for personal/portable devices.

These devices could operate at power levels thousands of times more powerful than medical telemetry and would cause direct interference with medical telemetry operating in white spaces. At such high power levels, these consumer devices would have unacceptable levels of adjacent channel emissions and would interfere with medical telemetry operating in channel 37.

Based on productive conversations with the FCC and industry, GE Healthcare filed recommendations with the FCC outlining technical requirements for protecting WMTS. In the event that the Commission rules in favor of new personal/portable devices to operate in white spaces:

• GE Healthcare has recommended a spurious emissions specification (or mask) for CH37 that must be met for patient safety. This would ensure personal devices brought into the hospital or operating near it would not interfere with telemetry systems.

• As an alternative to designating CH36 and CH38 as absolute guard bands, the mask quantifies an emissions specification that must be met.

Many hospitals are not aware of the FCC proposed rule-making and the associated risks to patient safety. Also, the FCC may decide to utilize the white spaces for fixed applications, which could be managed similar to today’s television broadcasting. (in which case, there would be less risk of interference). Because of these reasons, hospitals should have additional time (until Feb. 2010) to conduct internal assessments and possibly transition all of their telemetry systems to WMTS. This would ensure that direct interference from other wireless devices would not occur. Hospitals also need more time to plan for the financial budgeting process required to make a complete or immediate switch to WMTS bands.