Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on October 27, 2006
Journal of Public Health 2006 28(4):299-303; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdl067
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Evidence-based policy? The use of mobile phones in hospital
Stefanie Ettelt, Research Fellow1
Ellen Nolte, Senior Lecturer1
Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health1
Odd Arild Haugen, Special Advisor2
Ingvar Karlberg, Professor of Health Services Research3
Niek Klazinga, Professor of Social Medicine4
Walter Ricciardi, Professor of Hygiene and Public Health5
Juha Teperi, Director6
1 European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
2 Directorate of Health and Social Affairs, Oslo, Norway
3 Department of Social Medicine, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden
4 Department of Social Medicine, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
5 Institute of Hygiene, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
6 Health Services Research Division, STAKES National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland
Address correspondence to Martin McKee, E-mail: martin.mckee{at}lshtm.ac.uk
Background Evidence-based policies have become increasingly accepted in clinical practice. However, policies on many of the non-clinical activities that take place in health care facilities may be less frequently evidence based.
Methods We carried out a review of literature on safety of mobile phones in hospitals and survey of practice in selected European countries.
Results When first evidence on the dangers of electronic interference associated with mobile phones appeared in the 1990s, hospitals in many countries introduced complete bans on mobile phones. Yet a review of recent evidence suggests that there is no significant risk from using mobile phones in hospitals as long as they are more than a metre away from sensitive equipment, whereas the risk to the most modern equipment is even less. With the technological evolution of mobile phones, the residual risk of interference appears to be minimal and controllable. Although some countries are reluctant to relax regulation, others now limit bans to areas in which sensitive equipment is used and some discourage the use of mobile phones on the grounds of noise exposure.
Conclusion With new technology on the doorstep, the potential benefits and risks associated with mobile phones should be examined explicitly in the light of the evidence.
Keywords: cellular phone, electromagnetic interference, evidence-based medicine, mobile telephone, safety management