Dark-skinned patients get less ICU oxygen due to flawed device: study
Washington (AFP) - Racial minorities receive less oxygen in the intensive care unit than white patients because of a flaw in a medical device found in hospitals across the world, a US study said Monday. The pulse oximeter, first developed in the 1970s, clips to a patient's finger and uses red and infrared light absorption to assess hemoglobin. But it is known to generate falsely elevated readings in people with darker skin. In new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine, Eric Raphael Gottlieb and colleagues looked back at records of 3,069 patients at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Cent...