Fingertip oxygen sensors can fail on dark skin — now a physician is suing
Fingertip oxygen sensors can fail on dark skin — now a physician is suing
www.nature.com
Fingertip oxygen sensors can fail on dark skin — now a physician is suing
4 comments
These things use light to see through the skin. I think this physician should take it up with the laws of physics, unless of course, the O2 sensor said it could equally read through all skin types. But we are pretty much warned about this happening.. if someone died under your care and O2 monitoring was needed I don’t think this is the blood gas test you should have relied on…
In the article, it says the company states there was no significant difference in readings between black and white skin. The physician suing believes the original study is flawed because the company's tests were only conducted on healthy people in ideal lab settings.
A part of the reason why the physician is suing is because they believe there should be warnings that these may be inaccurate for black people.
Would a stronger or different wavelength light work better on melanin-rich skin?
Has the industry done any research on how to make it work better?
Or is it like crash tests that don't even bother having a dummy which represents a woman? "If I don't have any data, I don't need to spend money on improving my product"?