Posted on 03/02/2021 10:11:15 AM PST by Twotone
(WBMA) – A study found racial bias in a common lifesaving medical detection device, according to the FDA.
The device is called a pulse oximeter and it's used to make important medical decisions for patients, especially in the pandemic.
It is an electronic device that measures the saturation of oxygen carried in your red blood cells.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the use of that type of device failed at getting a proper blood oxygen reading in more Black patients than white patients.
According to the FDA, it’s likely the device is less accurate in people with “dark skin pigmentation”.
"I don't think there was a dramatic difference in how the COVID disease process could have been managed over the year," Dr. Michael Luther said. "But in individual circumstances, no doubt someone was told that their oxygen was 94 and it was really 87 and it may have delayed care in those individual cases."
Doctor Luther is with Grandview’s primary care facility in Homewood and said adjustments will have to be made going forward, to ensure extra attention is paid to oxygen levels in Black patients.
“We would kind of subjectively be a little more skeptical if someone who identifies as Black said that their home reading is 93%. We might just tell ourselves, 'you know there is a three times higher chance that, that’s not right compared to someone who identifies as white'. And then we would say, ok be more cautious, have a different threshold to call me back again,” Dr. Luther said.
(Excerpt) Read more at idahonews.com ...
“...failed at getting a proper blood oxygen reading in more Black patients than white patients. ..”
Sorry, but that has nothing to do with racism. It is called a “flaw” that needs to be corrected. Don’t let these troublemakers get away everything racism.
Obesity is associated with a lower oxygen saturation.
“...failed at getting a proper blood oxygen reading in more Black patients than white patients. ..”
Sorry, but that has nothing to do with racism. It is called a “flaw” that needs to be corrected. Don’t let these troublemakers get away calling everything racism.
Psssst....there’s no such thing as race.
Scientifically speaking.:-)
A study found racial bias in Dark Matter, when Dark Matter is finally found.
IIUC, what medicos have been seeing is deceptively high pulse oximetry, which can lead to the docs thinking the illness is less severe than it is in fact.
What, is it going to be nobody can use them now because they’re allegedly unfair?
More systemic racism!
White People just ruin EVERYTHING!!!1!!
Call the lawyers...
"...we also estimated the percentage of patients with occult hypoxemia after adjusting for age, sex, and cardiovascular score on the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) in the University of Michigan cohort. "
.....
"We analyzed 10,789 pairs of measures of oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry and arterial oxygen saturation in arterial blood gas obtained from 1333 White patients and 276 Black patients in the University of Michigan cohort and 37,308 pairs obtained from 7342 White patients and 1050 Black patients in the multicenter cohort."
It appears to me that the issue turns out to be in the statistical "confidence level" of the the results for each race, whereas the base values obtained are very close to the same...
Gee!
Wonder why they didn't use equal numbers of patients in each racial study population...
As my decrepit old brain remembers, huge disparity in population numbers can certainly lead to measurement results with different "confidence levels"...
It has everything to do with skin color. The oximeter reads the color of the capillary bed to make a reading
Ban this despicable racist device!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koO35JqBQMI
By that reasoning, it would give the opposite results for whites and correct numbers for Hispanics and Asians.
So ridiculous.
Bravo Sierra headline. The device has a difficult time dealing with skin pigment. That’s not a bias. It’s a setting. A bias implies a purposeful discrimination against someone based on an inborn characteristic. For instance, people born with light-colored skin get skin cancer more often than those with more pigment in the skin. That’s not bias. It’s circumstance.
My sympathies go out to those who just accept the validity of this headline and carry around the false belief attached to it. Sad beyond words.
They put one of these on my finger today at the doctors. Do I have a lawsuit?
They put one of these on my finger today at the doctors. Do I have a lawsuit?
NVM, I just realized I’m white. :(
All the docs need to see is an obese diabetic female to be on alert. If the pt. has dark green nail polish, the reading is more problematic but these gals usually won’t have that nail polish.
This isn’t news. Why NEJM even published this article is strange.
Racism everywhere. Really it’s systemic racism. I can fix it for 8 trillion dollars. Maybe 7 trillion. In addition I will need 80 million blank checks.
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