FDA urged to review blood monitoring device’s accuracy for patients of color

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today urged the Food and Drug Administration to review how accurately pulse oximeters monitor blood oxygen levels, citing multiple studies suggesting they provide misleading measures to patients of color.

"In order to reduce health disparities and restore trust among communities of color, we must reevaluate the ways in which current practices and clinical tools themselves potentially worsen outcomes for people of color," the senators wrote. "With an ongoing pandemic disproportionately affecting communities of color, it can be a matter of life or death that the very device that could help these communities and their health care providers detect the need for urgent care is less likely to alert them to risks simply because of the color of their skin.”