Pulse oximeters give biased results for people with darker skin

Post by dredmorbius » Fri, Aug 07, 2020, 12:55 AM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #110

dredmorbius wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both measurement and social/cultural bias occur in physics: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q="bias%20in%20physics"&b... "Cargo Cult Science" (esp. Millikan). http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm Einstein to M. Curie: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/19/einstein-curie-lett... Planck: Science advances one funeral at a time. (See also Kuhn.) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck

Yes, and the point that I'm making is that "this isn't bias, this is physics" is missing the point. Yes, the way in which varying wavelengths of light interact with varying configurations of bulk matter is a physical phenomenon, and not subject to bias. But that isn't the same as saying, as the comment to which I originally replied seemed to do, that no bias can exist in the way in which that phenomenon is interprete…

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 07, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #100

slowmovintarget wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This IS NOT BIAS ! This is physics! As someone else pointed out, this isn't only about melanin in the skin. Darkened skin for any reason will cause this (burns, smoking, dirt, etc...). Medical personnel are trained to account for this partial accuracy. The other fact is that there are newer techniques being worked on to improve the technology.

> This IS NOT BIAS ! This is physics! You sound pretty emotional, maybe tone it down and try to think objectively. Just because there's an underlying physical reason for the device to be inaccurate on a subset of the population, doesn't mean that it's fair to use that device on the impacted population. It's been accepted by the medical community, despite the additional training required to correctly use the device --…