NEWS Report No. ET 97-9 ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY ACTION October 22, 1997 CHANGES IN BIOMEDICAL TELEMETRY RULES ADOPTED (ET DOCKET 95-177) The Commission has amended Part 15 of its rules to permit biomedical telemetry transmitters located in health care facilities to operate without a license on TV channels 7-46 (174-668 MHz). Biomedical telemetry devices are used in hospitals and other health care facilities to transmit patient measurement data to a nearby receiver, permitting patient mobility and improved comfort. Typical devices include heart, blood pressure and respiration monitors. Formerly, the Commission's rules permitted biomedical telemetry devices to operate only on TV channels 7-13 at a field strength level not to exceed 1500 uV/m at 3 meters. Also, any type of operation on TV channel 37 (608-614 MHz) was prohibited due to the allocation of this frequency for radio astronomy. Under the new rules, biomedical telemetry devices may operate on any TV channel from 7 to 46 at a field strength level of 200,000 uV/m at 3 meters. Fundamental emissions must be confined to a single TV channel. In the Notice of Proposed Rule Making in this proceeding, the Commission proposed to permit biomedical telemetry devices to operate over TV channels 7-69. However, in other subsequent proceedings, the Commission indicated that it will reallocate channels 52-69 to other services and will reallocate TV channels 2-6 or 47-52 at some later date. Thus, only channels 7-46 remain available for biomedical telemetry devices. The Commission believes that biomedical telemetry devices can share the TV broadcast channels without an increase in harmful interference problems. Biomedical telemetry devices are expensive, complex products that are generally installed by the manufacturer or by a third party working with the manufacturer. Individual systems must be specifically engineered for each location. Because interference to biomedical telemetry devices could endanger the health and safety of patients using this equipment, it is expected that health care facilities, in combination with the manufacturers and installers, would expend considerable effort to avoid operating on nearby occupied broadcast channels. As a further safeguard, the Commission established minimum separation distances between biomedical telemetry devices and TV broadcast protected field strength contours. In addition, health care facilities wishing to operate biomedical telemetry devices on TV channel 37 and within specified distances of radio astronomy observatories must first obtain written concurrence from the director of the affected radio astronomy observatory. The Commission also reminded the operators of biomedical telemetry devices that, like other Part 15 unlicensed devices, such devices must accept any interference that may be received from other radio operations. The operators also are responsible for resolving any interference problems caused by the operation of their devices, even if resolving that interference requires that the biomedical telemetry device cease operation. Action by the Commission October 9, 1997, by Report and Order (FCC 97- 379). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Ness and Chong. Office of Engineering and Technology contact: John A. Reed at (202) 418-2455. -FCC-