A study presented to heart researchers at the Heart Rhythm Society’s annual meeting in Denver reports that interference from Apple’s now-iconic iPod media players can disrupt telemetry used in cardiac pacemakers—and maybe even cause them to shut down.
The study was presented by 17 year-old high school student Jay Thaker, with the University of Michigan’s Krit Jongnarangsin acting as the senior author. The study examined the use of iPods with 100 pateients at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University, and was able to detect electrical interference 50 percent of the time when the iPod was held two inches from the patient’s chest for five to ten seconds. In some cases, interference was detectable with the iPod as far as 18 inches from a patient’s chest, and in one case interference with telemetry gear caused a pacemaker to shut down because it couldn’t detect the patient’s heart rate.
