PRESS RELEASE

RFID in Healthcare Consortium Assembles Providers and Technologists to Discuss Next Steps in the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Debate

WASHINGTON, D.C. (14 DECEMBER 2008) – A panel of healthcare and technology experts, moderated by William H. Maisel, M.D., MPH, a member of the Harvard faculty and its Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will meet at the World Health Care Congress 3^rd Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, January 21, 2009 to discuss the impact of EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) in healthcare delivery.

“Much-needed improvements in healthcare delivery and management cannot be made without the benefits that technology offers,” says Harry P. Pappas, co-founder of Washington-based nonprofit RFID in Healthcare Consortium. As part of a multiple-year strategic agreement with World Congress, the Consortium is bringing together this unique and emanate panel to weigh in on the use and role of RFID and other wireless technologies in the healthcare environment.

“With so much excellent but expensive medical equipment developed specifically for better healthcare delivery, we need to be attentive to how wireless devices, including those that use RFID, are integrated.” remarks one of the panelists, Dr. John K. Stevens.

“But we have a long way to go in completely, safely and comprehensively integrating these into healthcare delivery, especially with older equipment.” He adds, “We must be vigilant in adopting appropriate standards, regulations and guidelines in order to take advantage of new devices and technologies.”

Chair of the IEEE RuBee (P1902.1) Standards Working Group, Stevens is a scientist and biophysicist, who is published extensively. A tenured full professor at the University of Toronto before embarking on a successful 30-year career as a serial entrepreneur, Stevens’ latest venture is Visible Assets, Inc., which he began in 2002, and is now CEO and Chairman of the Board.

Having spent a career in all facets of bioengineering with the Air Force, NASA and at prestigious universities, such as Caltech and Georgia Technology Institute, Professor Art Koblasz sees great value in openly discussing the merits and drawbacks of wireless and RFID technologies in healthcare engineering. “This Fall, some of my senior undergraduate students used the University of Amsterdam experiment on RFID to formulate their own testing and design paper,” says Koblasz, a consummate teacher. His own research interests in Rehabilitation Engineering and Medical diagnostic protocols, include RFID-based patents pending.

Maisel recently led a study of whether headphones for MP3 players interact with implanted cardiac devices. The results were released in November 2008.

Invited to the panel is David Novotny, a scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Electromagnetics Division in Boulder (CO). He has recently conducted several electromagnetic compatibility studies that are of interest to healthcare providers.

Also invited to the panel is Erik Jan van Lieshout, M.D., Medical Head, Mobile Intensive Care Unit Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam. The results of studies on possible electromagnetic interference issues with RFID and critical care equipment that he and his co-authors conducted were published in a recent issue of the Journal of American Medical Association.