Registration of Wireless Telemetry Equipment
Contents
Background
In 2000, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dedicated a portion of the radio spectrum for wireless medical telemetry devices such as wireless heart, blood pressure and respiratory monitors. The creation of the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) was a direct result of the AHA's and ASHE's advocacy to the FCC about our concerns of how electromagnetic interference with wireless medical telemetry equipment can affect patient safety.
When the FCC created the WMTS band, the agency extended the freeze on issuing licenses to high power users for three years to allow hospitals time to migrate from the 460-470 MHz band. Recognizing hospitals' difficulty in transitioning to WMTS because of limited resources and a lack of equipment on the market, ASHE and the AHA worked with the FCC and leaders of the private land mobile radio service (PLMRS) community to reach a consensus agreement extending the freeze until December 31, 2005. The FCC announced this last and final extension of the bandwidth freeze in its July 8 Public Notice, which is available at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-249481A1.pdf.
Interference to wireless medical telemetry equipment comes from multiple sources, including TV stations and mobile radio devices. However, the interference probability will increase dramatically when the FCC lifts its freeze on high-powered PLMRS devices in the 460-470 MHz band. The FCC defines high-powered devices as anything operating at 2 watts or greater, and the agency anticipates a flood of application requests for these high-powered PLMRS devices that could operate at over 100 times the power they are operating now. Hospitals' medical telemetry systems are subject to interference from a variety of licensed primary users including mobile radios or walkie-talkies used by policemen, firemen, taxicabs and delivery trucks. Conservative estimates indicate that there are 10 PLMRS devices for every single medical wireless telemetry device.
In addition to extending the bandwidth freeze, the FCC's Public Notice reminded the field that hospitals are required to register their telemetry equipment and frequencies through ASHE.
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Registration of Equipment Operating in WMTS Band
Equipment operating in the WMTS bands (608-614 MHz, 1395-1400 MHz, and 1427-1432 MHz) is operating under primary status, and therefore, protected from interference by other devices. WMTS is the only frequency spectrum designated exclusively for wireless medical telemetry systems. Hospitals deploying telemetry systems in the WMTS bands must ensure that device registration has been completed before the equipment is operational.
Steps to Register:
- Contact ASHE to establish an account through the online registration form or by phone at (312) 422-3805. You must provide information on the hospital or main facility where wireless medical telemetry equipment will be installed and pay a one-time administrative fee of $200 to establish each account. Health systems will need to establish an account for each hospital.
- ASHE will contact you with the appropriate account information including login and password to enter your WMTS deployment into the WMTS Frequency Coordination Database. You can access the database from ASHE's Web site or through www.wmtssearch.com.
Once in the WMTS database, you will be prompted to: enter site and equipment information, perform a frequency search, select frequencies and download a certificate of coordination. There is no charge to perform a frequency search. However, once you select frequencies, your deployment will be entered into the database and you will be charged a registration fee (please see the Pricing Summary section in the WMTS User Information Guide). For more information about WMTS, download the User Information Guide at www.ashe.org/ashe/wmts/pdfs/wmts_userguide.pdf.
After the above steps are completed, you will receive a coordination certificate with a summary of your registered deployment - i.e., where in the spectrum your equipment is operating.
Frequency Coordinators
The FCC designated ASHE as its medical telemetry frequency coordinator. In that role, ASHE will maintain a database of WMTS transmitters and notify users of potential frequency conflicts. For more information about ASHE's role as frequency coordinator, please visit www.ashe.org or contact John Collins, Director of Engineering Compliance, at (312) 422-3805 or jcollins@aha.org.
Please contact the AHA's Mary Beth Savary Taylor at msavary@aha.org, (202) 626-2270, or ASHE's Dale Woodin at dwoodin@aha.org, (312) 422-3812 if you have questions about hospitals' use of telemetry equipment and patient safety.