The Final Say on Pulse Oximeters

Thanks to Apple, the once-buzzy medical devices are back in the news

Photo by Syed Ali on Unsplash

Remember pulse oximeters? In the early days of the pandemic, the small, clothespin-like devices, used to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood, had a brief moment in the spotlight thanks in part to a widely read op-ed in the New York Times suggesting they could help identify undetected cases of Covid-19. Now, they’re back in the news after Apple announced that its new Apple Watch Series 6 will have a pulse oximeter.

But despite the increasing availability of these devices, their usefulness for the average healthy person during the pandemic remains debatable.

The Times op-ed, written by emergency room physician Richard Levitan, MD in mid-April, explained that pulse oximeters could be useful in detecting “silent hypoxia” — the dangerously low oxygen levels that sometimes accompanied pneumonia caused by Covid-19. Levitan said that widespread pulse oximetry could “provide an early warning system for the kinds of breathing problems associated with Covid pneumonia.” Notably, he didn’t say that the devices could detect Covid-19 directly. Nevertheless, pulse oximeters began selling out at stores.

As I previously wrote on the Coronavirus Blog, other experts have argued that these devices aren’t necessary…