Traditional medical imaging works great for people with light skin but has trouble getting clear pictures from patients with darker skin. A Johns Hopkins University–led team found a way to deliver clear pictures of anyone’s internal anatomy, no matter their skin tone.
In experiments the new imaging technique produced significantly sharper images for all people—and excelled with darker skin tones. It produced much clearer images of arteries running through the forearms of all participants, compared to standard imaging methods where it was nearly impossible to distinguish the arteries in darker-skinned individuals.
Dr. Google yielded this good roundup of tech from around when I recall reading about it, near the end of the public health emergency. https://www.darkdaily.com/2023/05/22/innovators-develop-multi-analyte-pulse-oximeters-that-accurately-read-oxygen-levels-in-people-with-darker-skin-pigmentation/
Thanks!
Here is the most scientific version of this I could find from that article. I’ve got work to do, but I’ll try to come back later to add something else.
There shouldn’t be any barriers to entry for this. It won’t be as cheap, but NIRS is not prohibitively expensive.
This is just really new. It takes lots of time for completely novel medical devices to enter the clinic.
This is also vastly more advanced than a pulse ox.