A study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that wireless systems used by many hospitals to keep track of medical equipment, also known as radio frequency identification devices (RFID), can be a threat to lifesaving devices like respirators, external pacemakers and dialysis machines.

This is the first time a study looks at RFID interference within the hospital, according to lead-author Erik Jan van Lieshout, a critical care physician at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam.

There are two types of RFID, one transmitting information and another reading it, also known as “passive.”

The Dutch researchers tested the effect of both types on some 41 medical devices, including ventilators, syringe pumps, dialysis machines, and pacemakers. The study identified 22 hazardous incidents. Two were classified as significant (an inaccurate blood pressure reading or alarm wrongly going off which might divert attention from the patient) while another 10 as light (“snow” on the monitor, which didn't need attention.)

Most of them occurred at about 9.8 inches from the equipment, though they recorded problems up to six meters away.

Van Lieshout said the study is not meant to “induce a ban on RFID in healthcare” as it has real potential but it is meant to draw attention on the danger it poses on hospitals’ equipment and thus on patients.

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in the JAMA that the findings of the study should serve as a lesson about technologies in medicine in general. “Anything new is going to introduce both good news and bad news. There will always be consequences. We have a love affair with technology, and that's a little bit dangerous if we're not keeping our eyes wide open. This is a good heads up,” Dr. Berwick said.