A Quick Remedy Proves Elusive For Life-Saving Pulse Oximeter’s Problems With Darker Skin
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on January 31, 2023
Since the start of the pandemic, the popular medical device has been indispensable for measuring oxygen in the blood, but dangerously inaccurate in patients with darker skin. Now the FDA is in the hot seat and Black researchers are working on a cure.
At the University of Maryland Medical System, which has 11 hospitals in and around Baltimore, about half the patients are Black. So as discussion about how medical devices called pulse oximeters—the plastic hinges that clamp onto your finger to measure the oxygen content of your blood—don’t work as well for Black . . .
