How do we account for opposite results from studies on pulse oximeters? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Critical care medicine relies on pulse oximeters, which estimate oxygen levels in someone’s blood, for many decisions regarding their care. Studies during the pandemic suggested the devices said there was more oxygen in the blood of someone with darker skin than there was, but now an FDA funded study suggests the opposite. Johns Hopkins critical care expert Rohan Mathur comments.

Mathur: This is surprising a little bit but that's what science is all about. We know that there is an error range with these things. These patients although they were all in the ICU were not people who were in emergent situations where their oxygen levels were dropping suddenly whereas a lot of those earlier studies looked at patients who had suddenly become hypoxic. In other words oxygen levels had dropped below a certain amount so it's possible that maybe there is a discrepancy that happens more when people are actively becoming hypoxic, their oxygen levels are dropping rapidly that might take another study to figure out. :32

Mathur notes that any additional studies will likely need to do actual measurements in the blood for validation. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.