Pulse oximeters use light to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood (SpO2). For most people, a normal pulse oximeter reading is between 95% and 100%, with readings below 90-92% generally considered ...

Blood oxygen measurements taken with pulse oximeters in hospitals tend to be lower than they really are, according to the Equiox study, which was designed to assess the technology’s measurement ...

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . Real-world study looked at relationship between skin pigmentation and pulse oximeter bias in critically ill ...

Dr. Takuo Aoyagi, a Japanese bioengineer, was the first to invent pulse oximetry in 1974. 2 The pulse oximeter is based on the light absorption characteristics of hemoglobin at different wavelengths.

Acknowledging the disparity in pulse oximetry implicates a $2 billion industry that has faced stricter regulations in recent years in an attempt to address bias in the development and testing of these ...

Holly has a degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leicester. Her scientific interests include genomics, personalized medicine, and bioethics.View full profile Holly has a degree in ...

Tiffany Kinyua is a psychology major with a minor in biology and she is a 2025-26 health care ethics intern at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Views are her own.

Pulse oximeter devices routinely overestimate blood oxygen levels in darker-skinned patients—a racial bias that can trigger downstream health harms for Black individuals, compounding well beyond any ...