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 ...
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 ...
A major UK study shows that commonly used home pulse oximeters can overestimate oxygen levels in people with darker skin, increasing the risk of undetected hypoxemia and raising urgent questions about ...
In the EXAKT study from the U.K., the home-use pulse oximeters assessed all gave higher oxygen saturation (SpO2) readings for patients with darker skin tones than for patients with lighter skin tones.
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.
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