Pulse oximeters fail dark-skinned patients:
(popular) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/11/1110370384/when-it-comes-to-darker-skin-pulse-oximeters-fall-short (academic) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2794196
#npr #pulseoximeters #medicaltechnology #medicine #jama #journaloftheamericanmedicalassociation
@koavf So quick question on this, is this the oximeters that were reliant on LED light tracking on skin tracers for heart rates, or some other design I'd seen in testing?
@koavf Oooh read the article, and yeah looks like it's the same design I saw being tested. There should be a different scale of lighting used to track oxi/bp/hr for that, but it shouldn't be hard to modify the LED trackers for that to help improve accuracy per patient. Might even be able to do that to the older models on the use today with some tweaking of the settings internally and some new codework. #Techmusings
@PaganMother Have you proposed this to anyone?
@koavf Not yet, but I'm no inventor or anything. I just see a logical solution to a clear problem.
@koavf With red, blue, and yellow led light nodes added to the module however, this would need additional codework with the device to allow the user to adjust automatically to blend the colored LED lighting to increase accuracy or adjust for a new patient. But I'm not certain how to implement such an concept without stripping down the model completely and rebuilding it from scrap, bit by bit with the new LED lights added to it. I'm no professional of technical aspects of this.
@koavf But the concept is there, if someone has the know how and ability to construct a testing model, it's worth a try to have inclusive tools to help patients of all skin colors.
@koavf I came back to check on that thread of discussion just now actually, no, I'm not fully certified or anything in the medical field, but I did pick up a ton of knowledge about how nurse assistants and medical assistants work and what kind of tools they used in my time as a dental assistant in training. >.< Sorry for the long windedness, I had wondered why that device hadn't been adjusted to add a new array for spectrum differences in skin colors for a while.
@PaganMother I appreciate it. Thanks.
@koavf I mean I could go a step further with the concept in theory. The color of these LED's don't have to be strictly red, they could use blue, and yellow as well in combination to adjust to increase accuracy dependent on the skin color of the individual patient instead of waiting for a new model to be manufactured. I recall these models being used back in 2014 at a medical career school I was attending, and the red are very inaccurate with dark skin, that's for certain, can fully confirm.