Geoj posted:

From my understanding (at least in hospital settings) old analog cell phones used the same/nearly same frequency as a lot of wireless medical equipment so cell phones were generally banned from use. Modern digital phones are well outside of the spectrum used by medical equipment but a lot of hospitals still enforce the ban. My friend's wife is a physical therapist and up until recently had to leave her phone in her locker at work, but apparently the hospital she works at recently relaxed their rules to allow cell phone use anywhere but in operating rooms and intensive care floors.

Pagers are/were widely used by health care professionals because they are receive only and didn't emit anything that could interfere with equipment.