POEm: Pulse Oximetry from the Ear-druM; a robust measurement site eliminating a racial bias

医生和其他医护人员经常使用手指夹探针轻轻附着在一个人的指尖来测量他们血液中的含氧量。因为氧气对你身体的所有过程都很重要，当人们健康时，他们的氧气水平保持在一个稳定的水平。然而，氧气水平降低可能表明某人患有严重疾病，需要立即紧急治疗，包括通过面罩吸氧。因此，在许多医疗咨询中，测量氧气已成为一项常规测量，通常根据测量的氧气水平决定治疗，包括COVID-19。因此，氧气读数必须1)容易收集，2)可靠。特别是，他们不能给人虚假的保证，说氧气含量是健康的，而实际上氧气含量低得很危险。英国政府最近公布的证据表明，广泛使用的手指探针氧气装置（和耳垂夹）对肤色较深的人并不准确。这导致了对严重疾病的低估，并使黑人、亚洲人和少数民族的人面临严重疾病得不到治疗的风险。此外，国家指导方针检测败血症依赖于氧测量。然而，许多5岁以下的孩子很难保持足够长的时间来获得可靠的读数，这意味着没有足够的信息来确定孩子是否患有败血症，这使得诊断和治疗变得更加困难。项目组已经确定每个人的耳膜都是相同的颜色，这为每个人提供了一个可靠的氧气水平。因此，我们正在开发和测试一种可穿戴或手持设备（比如耳朵温度计），我们希望证明它对每个人都是可靠的，无论肤色如何。我们还认为，这样更容易检测蠕动的幼儿体内的水平，并且能够在寒冷中进行准确的测量。这个项目是与布里斯托尔西英格兰大学的专家合作，测试耳鼓脉搏血氧仪（POEM）设备的概念，使我们能够在包括所有种族患者在内的大量人群中进行测试

Doctors and other healthcare staff often use finger clip probes attached gently to the tip of a person's finger to measure the amount of oxygen they have in their blood. Because oxygen is so important for all the processes in your body, when people are well their oxygen level is kept at a steady level. However, reducing oxygen levels can indicate that someone is suffering a serious illness and need immediate emergency treatment, including oxygen through a mask. Oxygen measurements have therefore become a routine measurement during many healthcare consultations and treatment is often decided according to the level of oxygen measured, including for COVID-19\. It is therefore essential that the oxygen readings are 1) easily collected, and 2) reliable. In particular, they must not give false reassurance that oxygen levels are healthy when in reality they are dangerously low.Evidence has emerged and been publicised by the UK government recently, that the widely used finger probe oxygen device (and ear lobe clips) are not accurate for people with darker skin colours. This has resulted in an underestimate of severe disease and putting Black, Asian and minority ethnic people at risk of not being treated for serious illness. Also, national guidelines on detecting sepsis rely on oxygen measurements. However, many under-5-year-olds have difficulty staying still for long enough to obtain a reliable reading, meaning there is insufficient information to determine if a child has sepsis, making the diagnosis and management more difficult.The project group has identified that everyone's eardrums are the same colour, offering a site at which oxygen levels can be reliably obtained for everyone. We are therefore developing and testing a wearable or handheld device (like an ear-thermometer, for example) that we hope to show is reliable for everyone, irrespective of skin colour. We also believe it will be easier to detect levels in the wriggling younger child, and will be able to give accurate measurements in the cold.This project is to test the concept of the Pulse Oximetry from the EardruM (POEM) device in collaboration with experts at University of West of England, Bristol, to allow us to move on for testing in a large population including patients of all ethnic groups