Inaccurate readings in the medical devices led to inferior care for Black patients.
By Rachel Roubein. Originally published in The Washington Post on January 6, 2025.
CHLPI Health and Law Policy Director Carmel Shachar was quoted in this article.
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a long-awaited plan aimed at improving how pulse oximeters work on people with darker skin — an effort that comes years after research showing that the devices’ inaccuracies led to delays in covid-19 treatment for Black patients.
The agency is calling for the devices to be tested on significantly more people, especially those with darker skin tones. Experts say this call is critical to incentivizing manufacturers to fix racial disparities in the accuracy of the devices’ readings.
Pulse oximeters are used to detect whether patients are receiving enough oxygen. The devices can be clipped to fingertips to measure how well oxygen is being sent from parts of the body far from the heart. But they have been shown to overestimate oxygen levels in darker-skinned patients.
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