A woman sits with a pulse oximeter while she gets a Covid-19 vaccine on April 27, 2021 in Hollandale, Miss.
“Not only less accurate, but in particular, more optimistic,” Tianshi David Wu, a co-lead author of the study and assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told NBC News. “In this study we found that minority patients appeared healthier than they really were based on this bias in pulse oximetry.”
The report indicated that the inaccuracies make it increasingly difficult for patients of color to get appropriate Covid-19 care and can lead to worse outcomes. The devices detect a person’s oxygen levels by the way light is absorbed by skin.
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