Racial bias found in common life-saving medical device

IdahoNews.com ^ | March 1, 2021 | Andrew Donley

[bk1000]

Part of the problem is the “identifies as...” BS.

[Shadylake]

Capitalizing black and not white, this is probably one of the main thing ‘journalists’ are taught and worry about.

[bert]

He suffered from excessive use of the shin whitening chemical hydroquinone

[Steve_Seattle]

"Hospitals have been using these devices for many many years. Nobody discovered this error before?"

That's also my question. I guess they are just jumping on the "everything is racist" bandwagon.

[dynachrome]

I scolded mine and banished it from society.

[centermass_socrates]

Yep, you would figure that there would be some sort of negation-coefficient or a segregative-coefficient if you will.

[Knocker]

2 questions: Is this article putting us on? And since black people usually have lighter skin coloration on the palm sides of their hands, does the degree of inaccuracy vary with variation in overall pigmentation, or do the same inaccuracies persist no matter the degree of coloration?

[centermass_socrates]

Yes, but I heard he looked as white as a ghost in the coffin (you know....lifelike for him, not his early life of course).

[wny]

napkins-—————RACIST !!
paper-——————RACIST !!
snow———————RACIST !!
salt———————RACIST !!
aspirins—————RACIST !!
baseballs-————RACIST !!
home plate————RACIST !!

where does this nonsense stop?

[Steve_Seattle]

“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."

Notice that "Black" is capitalized but "white" isn't. Neither should be capitalized because neither is a proper noun or meets any of the other criteria for capitalization. "Black" does not refer to any specific culture or even to a narrow range of skin pigmentation. So-called "black" people can be very dark or virtually "white."

[Islander7]

"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."

This clown doesn’t have the slightest clue how a pulseox works. I’ve drawn hundreds, maybe thousands of blood gases on patients of all colors. With proper blood circulation the correlation to calculated SAO2 (pulseox) and measured SAO2 (arterial blood gases PaO2) is 2-3% every time.

The colors measured by a pulseox is specific to the color of oxygen bearing red blood cells, i.e. hemoglobin molecules. Skin pigmentation, if it was an issue, would cause a FALSE LOWER READING, not a false high reading. Finger nail polish is the worse offender and that is usually not much of an issue.

[libertylover]

"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."

I would think black people might get readings skewed to be lower than correct, not higher. And if so, I'd think it would be pretty much skewed the same for groups, e.g., blacks are consistently read at 3% lower than whites.

BTW, I expect a similar blood sugar reading machine before long.

[Leep]

I’m just glad the media and the liberals are not biased.

[Leep]

then they would only have a few “reasons” to live?

[OrangeHoof]

I was being monitored with that little Chinese-made toy during my two weeks of quarantine. I figured out how to cheat the test and the doctors/nurses gave me no problem after that.

[Jaded]

This is insane!

[shotgun]

Rachel Doziel would most likely agree. She identified as black but was obviously suffering from lack of oxygen to the brain

[Secret Agent Man]

not all whites are the same color

pink/peach, alabaster, olive, light brown, tan, into the shades of brown

there should also be variations between everyone as pigment is not fixed to any particular exact amount

further blacks has a variety of pigment differences as well

i agree that it probably has to do with the type 2 disbetes rampant among the black community

[Secret Agent Man]

type 2 diabetes and the largely black specific sickle cell anemia issues that affect oxygen saturation ability of the red blood cells

[LouAvul]

anymore than cameras are racist for over exposing backgrounds when photographing black people!

No, cameras are not raciss because they overexpose backgrounds when photographing blak people. They be raciss cause security cameras photograph more blax than whites in commission of crimes.