Internet has become an everyday tool in health care. To communicate. To search of information. To do research.

Thanks to the development of smartphones and tablets, we can access Internet from anywhere. Almost...

There are many policies regarding the use of mobile phones and tablets in hospital environments, due to a risk of interference with technical devices.

Are you allowed to use your smartphone in your NICU?

Please post comments below.

And... there are several ways to access 99nicu.org on your smartphone. Click here for more information!

Many people use them but we are really "not supposed to use them". Hospital IT departments need to be more flexable

Yes, we use it without restrictions, I have my skyscape e-books on my smartphone and they are of great utillity, by the way it could be very usefull if nicu99 publish a list of software that are impresindible for the neonatologyst in the NICU,

Thanks

DrAntonio Camacho Aguilar

Neonatologyst

Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social

Mexico.

We will be written up if caught using our smart phone.

Yes

Yes it is used by all members without restriction

I don't really know what to vote as we have different policies in our different units.

The six Karolinska NICUs are located in three diff hospitals.

Where I work now, mobiles are No-no's. In contrast to the other two hospitals where mobiles are 1) "accepted" and 2) used instead if regular DECT-phones (i.e. Yes-yes!)

@Apgar10: What happens after you are written up?

@antcamac: Good idea! I start such à thread later.

Infection Control cultured everyone's phone and a few had MRSA on them, now they are forbidden in the unit( by nurses , of course the MD's do what they want)

All the staff have iPad. It makes life easy for everyone, looking up patient information and results especially during team rounds.

Cell phone use is officially not allowed on our wards, but everybody uses them anyhow.

A small follow-up on my answer from yesterday. I have talked to my uncle who is an electrical engineer and he was more concerned about using cell phones than any doctors I have spoken to about it. The biggest threat seems to be electromagnetic interference e.g. signals from the cell phone interfering with the normal functioning of equipment on intensive care wards ( e.g. everything we use on our wards). These machines have mechanisms to detect these interference signals but they are not 100% efficient in doing so. Especially making and receiving calls or messages is problematic as the biggest amount of signals are transfered at that point.

I found this an interesting read: http://bit.ly/wV7cOE

I felt rather uneasy after reading it e.g. changes in ventilator frequencies were seen...

So maybe the next time we ask around who changed the settings on the ventilator we should also think about our phones as culprits.

Maybe we doctors are underestimating the harm we are doing because we dont understand it & we dont want to part with our wonderful phones?

All the staff have iPad. It makes life easy for everyone, looking up patient information and results especially during team rounds.

I have to totally agree with this comment.

Also as we see iPADs make there way into airplane cockpits, I feel that there may not be anything to worry about iPADs in the NICU. If planes can stay in air with an iPAD in the cockpit, I am sure the ventilators and monitors in the NICU can continue to work. ...though I am no Radiofrequency expert but we really need specific interference data before we put a blanket ban on all smartphones and tablet devices. Like mentioned by nbenfadel....iPAD is a boon to doctors, nurses and ultimately improves patient care

LINK: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-02/air-force-buying-ipads-replace-flight-bags

LINK: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57342524-52/faa-gives-nod-to-ipads-in-cockpits-for-american-airlines/

At the same time dont forget the article referenced here

http://www.99nicu.org/forum/showthread.php?24185-Iphone-Interference-with-ECG

I could not survive w/o my Apps! I think the only issue is noise if we receive an incoming call(thank goodness for the "silence/vibrate" switch. We are going to "EPIC" for EMR in May and I'm pushing for more iPad involvement. Hoping for more neonatal-based Apps...and for more gigabytes on the iPhone 5! LOL

As I understand it the problem with cellular phones are their signals when receiving or answering calls.

I guess electronic devices not sending out GSM signals are not making the same problems. So using these devices (e.g. ipad) may be safe.

I am just concerned that there have been reports that they have seen devices turn off suddenly when exposed to cellular phones - now this might be a real problem. And I know this has happened at our department and we couldnt figure out why it did happen.

Yes I am