FCC auction will scramble patient-monitor airwaves

Despite objections by hospitals, the Federal Communications Commission is proceeding with an airwave auction next week that will force unlicensed wireless devices onto a channel previously reserved for patient monitors. The FCC will sell licenses for much of the 600 MHz spectrum, allowing only unlicensed use on Channel 37, which has so far been blocked off almost exclusively for Wireless Medical Telemetry Systems, which allow vital-sign sensors to communicate with patient monitors and nurse station monitors.

Allowing unlicensed devices onto the channel could cause interference with equipment that is critical to patient care, hospitals and advocates say. Read more from Modern Healthcare here.