Racial bias in oximeter? UK government launches probe whether device works only on white people

The UK government has launched an investigation after reports emerged that oximeter—which measure blood oxygen levels and are key to assessing COVID-19 patients—works properly only on people with lighter skin.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said he had commissioned a review of the issue after learning that oximeters give less accurate readings for patients with darker skin.

He claimed that there was a racial bias in some medical instruments, saying, “It’s unintentional but it exists.”

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“And the reason is that a lot of these medical devices, even some of the drugs, some of the procedures, some of the textbooks, most of them are put together in majority white countries and I think this is a systemic issue around this,” he added.

Asked whether people may have died of COVID-19 as a result of the error, Javid said, “I think possibly yes. I don’t have the full facts.”\

Javid assertions come after NHS England and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that the pulse oximeters can overestimate the amount of oxygen in the blood.

Britain’s statistics office has found that in the first year of the pandemic, up to March 2021, Black and South Asian people in the UK had higher death rates than their white compatriots, even after factors like occupation and underlying health conditions were taken into account.

But Javid, believes that the issue is not confined to Britain alone, and many similar cases can be discovered in other parts of the world.

"I want to make sure that we do something about it but not just in the UK. This is an international issue so I'm going to work with my counterparts across the world to change this," said Javid.

He said he had already spoken about the issue to his US counterpart, who was as interested in it as he was.

(With inputs from agencies)