Hospitals Switch Pagers for Mobile Phones

Using mobile telephones in hospitals reduces the error rate in medical care because of more timely communication and rarely causes electronic magnetic interference, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month.

The study published in February’s Anesthesia & Analgesia is believed to be the first to investigate whether use of cell phones by medical personnel has a beneficial impact on safety. It was based on 4,018 responses from attendees at the 2003 meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

EurekaAlert - Using mobile phones reduces error rate in hospital care

A study at a Singapore hospital has found that mobile phones have no adverse effect on medical equipment, prompting a massive switch from the pagers used for 20 years, the project director said Monday.

The 500 doctors at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) have traded in their pagers for phones. Instead of receiving messages that do not tell them who called or what the call was about, they now receive text messages containing specific information.

MonstersAndCritics - Mobile phones have no adverse effect on hospital equipment: study