Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium - Discriminating Devices: The Case of Pulse Oximetry
Channel: HMS Center for Bioethics
Date: 2023-04-17

Recently, numerous studies have revealed that commonly used medical devices, like pulse oximeters and spirometers, were designed to a "default" of light-skin tones or apply racial adjustments to outputs. This results in inferior diagnosis and care for Black and other minority patients. This session will explore how we got to this point where devices discriminate, how researchers identify racial bias in routine practice, and what changes would advance ethical, equitable medicine.

Panelists:
(1) Thomas S. Valley, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Michigan

(2) Amy Moran-Thomas, PhD
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Moderator:
(3) Frazer Tessema
PORTAL and Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago