On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:34:13 -0600, Don Foreman
wrote:

Had another thought today:

Perhaps the young doc hasn't yet encountered a patient who has
expertise in a related field and doesn't yet know how to deal with
that. It's not uncommon among highly-educated young chargers. I have
ample experience with smoke, feathers, fancy dancing and
bafflebull****. I didn't deal with medical folks during my working
life but I dealt with plenty of high-talent young PhD's in science and
engineering.

You are throwing a big EMF and RF wrinkle into the system that they
never thought of during initial testing and field trials, and doesn't
come up all that often in use - They simply expect all of the grateful
recipients of their medical largesse to meekly back down and give up
all activities that would add the slightest bit of extra hazard,
including an irrational severe allergy to microwave ovens.

They don't know you very well, do they? ;-P

Don't feel bad, that's the same faulty logic behind the "No 2-Way
Radios or Cellphones in the Hospital" decrees. Rather than study the
potential conflicts and determine limits that are technically
required, a blanket edict is a whole lot easier and faster.

A conversation with a decades-experienced "device nurse" was
enlightening.

She said that the doc would not adjust parameters in an attempt to
optimize compatibility with welding, he would adjust them to optimize
performance for the medical purpose required and intended.

Well, duh! That's exactly what he should do. Welding is optional,
dead guys don't need to weld. I could fault the young Doc's
people skills but I gotta respect a no-compromise attitude re doing
what is medically best whether I like it or not. That places
responsibility for risk of welding squarely upon me, which is exactly
where it belongs.

Dead guys can't weld anymore, yes. But guys who can't weld anymore
might as well... No, let's not go there any sooner than we have to.

They have to look at this as a Quality Of Life issue, and your task
is to beat that fact through their heads. With their own arm.

If nothing else, get some hard numbers on limits, and get them to
sign off on your sensor suite to measure them real-time. You are
developing a new study group, one researcher and one patient. No
rules that they can't be the same body.

You might end up with a vest that has sensors and a big buzzer -
when the sensors go over limit the buzzer goes off, it's time to
reposition the weldor, the work and/or the cables.

And there is always that mule-kick internal alarm if the external
one doesn't work - that should provide impetus to get it right the
first time.

-- Bruce --