The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Racial Bias in Pulse Oximetry Measurement
Open accessOverview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Related work on pulse oximetry, which relies on the same optical principles, has also documented skin-pigmentation-linked measurement errors [14,15]”
From PPG-Based Heart Rate Accuracy in Hispanic Adults with Fitzpatrick III–V Skin Tones: An Evaluation of Body Composition and Skin-Tone Effects (2026) · cites this paper as [15]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Patients with darker skin pigmentation are more likely than patients with lighter skin color to have overestimated SpO2 readings”
From Impact of skin pigmentation on pulse oximetry blood oxygenation and wearable pulse rate accuracy: systematic review and meta-analysis (2024) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“leading to lower hospital admission; higher occult hypoxemia; and delayed or no access to dexamethasone, therapeutic oxygen, and COVID-19 therapies, resulting in increased hospital readmission, organ dysfunction, and mortality [11-18].”
From Impact of skin pigmentation on pulse oximetry blood oxygenation and wearable pulse rate accuracy: systematic review and meta-analysis (2024) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Results from a large study [17] that includes 1333 white patients and 276 black patients indicated that the incidence of hypoxemia can be 3 times higher among patients self-reported as Black vs White because the oxygen saturation readings of black patients tend to be overestimated at a low SpO2 range.”
From Investigating the accuracy of blood oxygen saturation measurements in common consumer smartwatches (2023) · cites this paper as [17]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“For example, racial bias can lead to undetected hidden hypoxemia.”
From Investigating the accuracy of blood oxygen saturation measurements in common consumer smartwatches (2023) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“As a result, Black patients are three times more likely to suffer from an occult hypoxemia that remains undetected by pulse oximeters compared with white patients.”
From Addressing bias in big data and AI for health care: A call for open science (2021) · cites this paper as [1]
In the citing paper
“Imbalanced samples are a form of bias that the medical community has historically and still currently struggles to address [42].”
From Bias in medical AI: Implications for clinical decision-making (2024) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“Bias in clinical parameters such as glomerular filtration rate, pulse oximetry (with undiagnosed hidden hypoxemia for historically underserved patients), 35 differences in ICU severity scoring 36 shape radiology data sets for machine learning through a cascade effect as they affect ordering patterns for medical images.”
From AI pitfalls and what not to do: mitigating bias in AI (2023) · cites this paper as [35]
In the citing paper
“At the same time, people of colour are consistently misclassified by health sensors such as oximeters as they were validated on predominantly white populations [191].”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [191]
In the citing paper
“there is evidence that pulse oximeters also have increased error rates based on skin tone11,12”
From Response To: Investigating sources of inaccuracy in wearable optical heart rate sensors (2021) · cites this paper as [12]
In the citing paper
“Besides, they found overestimations in dark-skinned patients with an increased risk of occult hypoxemia [50].”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“An important finding of this study is that the probability of dark-skinned patients with SpO2 reading between 92% and 96% having an arterial oxygen saturation of less than 88% was 3 times higher (11.7%) than light-skinned patients (3.6%) with the same SpO2 measurement.”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“They conducted this study in two large cohorts at the University of Michigan Hospital comparing measurements of SpO2 and arterial blood gas of a sample of over 10,000 people with 14–20% of dark-skinned patients in both cohorts.”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“More recent studies have also revealed that dark skin pigmentation influences the accuracy and performance of pulse oximeters devices, resulting in overestimations [17,49,50,51,52,53] with increased incidence in the risk for occult hypoxemia (SO2<88% despite normal SpO2>92%) [54,55].”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“Recent studies have shown a positive bias in oxygen saturation measurements in patients with darkly pigmented skin, particularly under low saturation conditions.”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“and other subjective scales were employed in 13 studies (35.14%) [30,42,43,44,45,50,52,56,72,78,80,87,88].”
From Skin pigmentation influence on pulse oximetry accuracy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
In the citing paper
“Specifically, in the first cohort (n = 10,789), 11.4% Black patients had undetected hypoxemia (pulse oximetry > 92% and arterial oxygen saturation < 88%), compared to 3.6% white patients, and in the second cohort (n = 37,308), 17.0% Black patients had undetected hypoxemia, compared to 6.2% white patients.”
From Accuracy of heart rate measurement with wrist-worn wearable devices in various skin tones: a systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“A recent study by Sjoding et al. found that when compared to white patients, Black patients had a threefold increased frequency of undetected hypoxemia when using pulse oximeters [6].”
From Accuracy of heart rate measurement with wrist-worn wearable devices in various skin tones: a systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“Specifically, in the first cohort (n = 10,789), 11.4% Black patients had undetected hypoxemia (pulse oximetry > 92% and arterial oxygen saturation < 88%), compared to 3.6% white patients, and in the second cohort (n = 37,308), 17.0% Black patients had undetected hypoxemia, compared to 6.2% white patients.”
From Accuracy of heart rate measurement with wrist-worn wearable devices in various skin tones: a systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“A racial discrepancy has been established in pulse oximeters, which rely on transmission PPG, a slightly different form of the technology.”
From Accuracy of heart rate measurement with wrist-worn wearable devices in various skin tones: a systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“Results showed people described as Black had ‘nearly three times the frequency of occult hypoxemia that was not detected by pulse oximetry’ as those described as White [7].”
From The effects of skin pigmentation on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in measuring oxygen saturation: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
In the citing paper
“Two recent diagnostic studies provide evidence on clinical implications resulting from the bias in pulse oximetry for blood oxygen saturation levels [7, 57].”
From The effects of skin pigmentation on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in measuring oxygen saturation: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
In the citing paper
“At least two studies used diagnostic accuracy design and only presented proportions of participants with specific ranges of SpO2 in relation to specific SaO2 values, again rather than SpO2 and SaO2 data [7, 57].”
From The effects of skin pigmentation on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in measuring oxygen saturation: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
In the citing paper
“In these studies, people described as Black had a higher risk of ‘occult hypoxemia that was not detected by pulse oximetry’ compared with those described as White [7].”
From The effects of skin pigmentation on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in measuring oxygen saturation: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
In the citing paper
“Racial bias has been observed in the measurement of oxygen saturation level by pulse oximetry devices.”
From Unlocking Tomorrow’s Health Care: Expanding the Clinical Scope of Wearables by Applying Artificial Intelligence (2024) · cites this paper as [48]
In the citing paper
“Because of the greater presence of melanin, Black patients have falsely elevated peripheral oxygen saturation detected via pulse oximetry compared with arterial oxygen saturation measured in arterial blood gas.48”
From Unlocking Tomorrow’s Health Care: Expanding the Clinical Scope of Wearables by Applying Artificial Intelligence (2024) · cites this paper as [48]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Pollard, T. J., Johnson, A. E. W., Raffa, J. D., Celi, L. A., Mark, R. G., & Badawi, O. (2018) · Scientific Data · doi:10.1038/sdata.2018.178 · Cited by 1,993
Effects of skin pigmentation on pulse oximeter accuracy at low saturation
Bickler, P. E., Feiner, J. R., & Severinghaus, J. W. (2005) · Anesthesiology · doi:10.1097/00000542-200504000-00004 · Cited by 427
Four Types of Pulse Oximeters Accurately Detect Hypoxia during Low Perfusion and Motion
Louie, A., Feiner, J. R., Bickler, P. E., Rhodes, L., Bernstein, M., & Lucero, J. (2018) · Anesthesiology · doi:10.1097/aln.0000000000002002 · Cited by 106
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Moran-Thomas A. How a popular medical device encodes racial bias. Boston Review. August 5 2020 (http://bostonreview.net/science-nature-race/amy-moran-thomas-how-popular-medical-device-encodes-racial-bias).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 2023 Report: GOLD Executive Summary
Agustí, A. G. N., Celli, B. R., Criner, G. J., Halpin, D. M. G., Anzueto, A., Barnes, P. J., Bourbeau, J., Han, M. K., Martínez, F. J., de, M. M., et al. (2023) · European Respiratory Journal · doi:10.1183/13993003.00239-2023 · Cited by 1,467
Addressing bias in big data and AI for health care: A call for open science
Norori, N., Hu, Q., Aellen, F. M., Faraci, F. D., & Tzovara, A. (2021) · Patterns · doi:10.1016/j.patter.2021.100347 · Cited by 903
A New Global Definition of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Matthay, M. A., Arabi, Y. M., Arroliga, A. C., Bernard, G. R., Bersten, A. D., Brochard, L. J., Calfee, C. S., Combes, A., Daniel, B. M., Ferguson, N. D., et al. (2023) · American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine · doi:10.1164/rccm.202303-0558ws · Cited by 916
Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 2023 Report: GOLD Executive Summary
Agustí, A. G. N., Celli, B. R., Criner, G. J., Halpin, D. M. G., Anzueto, A., Barnes, P. J., Bourbeau, J., Han, M. K., Martínez, F. J., de, M. M., et al. (2023) · American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine · doi:10.1164/rccm.202301-0106pp · Cited by 920
Bias in medical AI: Implications for clinical decision-making
Cross, J. L., Choma, M. A., & Onofrey, J. A. (2024) · PLOS Digital Health · doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000651 · Cited by 607
Metadata
- Authors
- Sjoding, M. W., Dickson, R. P., Iwashyna, T. J., Gay, S. E., & Valley, T. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Publisher
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Published
- 2020-12-17
- Volume
- 383
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- 2477-2478
- ISSN
- 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4406
- PMC
- PMC7808260
- OpenAlex
- W3111737151
- Cited by
- 1,114
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 191 · 2025: 182 · 2024: 193 · 2023: 227 · 2022: 209 · 2021: 109 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 42.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Health Services Research and Development (IIR 17-045)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K01 HL136687, K12 HL138039, K23 HL140165, R01 HL144599)
- U.S. National Library of Medicine (R01 LM013325)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Race, Genetics, and Society
- Keywords
- pulse oximetry, racial bias, skin pigmentation, oxygen saturation measurement, measurement error, racial disparities in health care
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Hypoxia, Black or African American, Female, Humans, Male, Oximetry, Oxygen, White People, Organ Dysfunction Scores, Racism
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
