Patent ID: 8649838

Claim:
A method of sensing physiologic parameters of a patient, the method comprising: determining the patient's arterial oxygen saturation level; if the patient's arterial oxygen saturation level is in a high range, driving only a first set of emitters on a sensor configured to substantially optimize physiologic measurements in patients having high arterial oxygen saturation levels and calculating a new arterial oxygen saturation level of the patient using data generated using only the first set of emitters; if the patient's arterial oxygen saturation level is in a low range, driving only a second set of emitters on the sensor configured to substantially optimize physiologic measurements in patients having low arterial oxygen saturation levels and calculating the new arterial oxygen saturation level of the patient using data generated using only the second set of emitters; and if the patient's arterial oxygen saturation level is in a transition range between the high range and the low range, driving the first and second sets of emitters on the sensor and calculating the new arterial oxygen saturation level of the patient using data generated using both the first and second set of emitters.