The iPhone 12 is made with a different type of magnet technology than previous iPhones, which generates a stronger magnetic field to help the phone connect to wireless chargers and charge faster, the study authors explain. But this strong magnetic field could also interfere with ICDs, small electronic chest implants that deliver shocks to help people manage a serious problem with the rate or rhythm of their heartbeat (called an arrhythmia), per the U.S. National Library of Medicine especially when the phone is kept in a shirt pocket.
The study authors, three doctors of cardiac electrophysiology from the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute at Henry Ford Hospital, conducted a simple experiment to test for such an interaction: They placed an iPhone 12 in different spots on the chest of a patient wearing an ICD. The results were clear: “Once the iPhone was brought close to the ICD over the left chest area, immediate suspension of ICD therapies was noted which persisted for the d