Girl, 14, warns 8000 docs that iPad 2 could turn off user's Pacemaker
A 14-year-old girl has conducted a study which found that Apple's iPad2 can, in some cases, interfere with life-saving heart devices because of the magnets inside.
Chien: Girl behind the iPad study
This weekend Gianna Chien reported on her work to more than 8,000 doctors at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting in Denver.
Chien's study was based on a science-fair project that didn’t even win her first place, Bloomberg reported.
John Day, chairman of the panel that reviews scientific papers for the meeting said Gianna's research was a valuable warning for people with pacemakers or implanted defibrillators, which deliver an electric shock to restart a stopped heart.
Chien, from Stockton, California, said, "If a person falls asleep with the iPad2 on the chest, the magnets in the cover can 'accidentally turn off; the heart device."
Chien's father Walter Chien, a cardiac electrophysiologist, helped his daughter coordinate the patient testing.
“I definitely think people should be aware," she said.Defibrillators, as a safety precaution, are designed to be turned off by magnets. The iPad2 uses 30 magnets to hold the iPad2’s cover in place, Chien said.
The iPad2 magnets aren’t powerful enough to cause problems when a person is holding the tablet out in front of the chest but it can be risky to rest it against the body, she found.
Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment to Bloomberg. She referred questions about the iPad2’s safety to its online product guide which suggests patients with pacemakers keep the iPad at least six inches away .
In the study 26 volunteers with defibrillators found “magnet mode” was triggered in 30 percent of patients who put the tablet on their chest.
Most defibrillators will turn back on once the magnet is no longer affecting the device, Day, the heart meeting official, said .
“Defibrillator patients can still buy Apple products,” he said. “Just don’t put them on your chest.”