Letters
Pulse oximetry and race
Racial bias in pulse oximetry: more statistical detail may help tackle the problem
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n298 (Published 02 February 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n298
- Keir E J Philip, clinical research fellow1,
- Robert Tidswell, clinical research fellow2,
- Charles McFadyen, clinical research fellow2
- 1National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, Royal Brompton Campus, London SW3 6HP, UK
- 2Bloomsbury Institute for Intensive Care Medicine, University College London, Centre for Intensive Care Medicine, Cruciform Building, London, UK
- k.philip{at}imperial.ac.uk
We were glad to see a news article1 highlighting research by Sjoding and colleagues2 which identifies a racial bias in pulse oximetry, with hypoxaemia identified less frequently in black people compared with white. The research is valuable, identifying an important matter; however, further details would aid clinical application of the findings.
Useful, additional, commonly used metrics absent from the paper include bias, precision, limits of agreement, and accuracy value. A …
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