/ Pulse oximetry is a powerful clinical tool for clinical evaluation of patients with cardiopulmonary compromise,however, multiple clinical studies have indicated pulse oximetry suffers from overestimation errors in darklypigmented individuals, which is a critical mistake in screening for a cardiopulmonary disease, including COVID-19, and could contribute to reports of outcome disparities in ethnic minorities. Aimloxy, LLC has been developingproprietary hardware and firmware for High Frequency Pulse Sensing Technology (HF-PST), which representsa next-generation evolution of photoplethysmography (PPG) pulse sensing technologies, which haveconventionally served as the backbone of pulse oximetry. The Optical Diagnostic Research Laboratory (ODRL)at Temple University is involved in the development of optical sensing technologies for low-resource settingsand has developed mobile-phone based technologies that include strategies for reducing pigmentationdependent inaccuracy in transcutaneous sensing of bilirubin levels in African-origin infants. The ODRL, Aimloxy,along with collaborators from Temple University Hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine and Fox Schoolof Business' Center for Data Analytics will team together to perform initial development and benchtopcharacterization of a next-generation high frequency spectroscopic pulse oximeter capable of reducingpigmentation dependent errors in PPG and oximetry signals, conduct an initial human subjects feasibility studyon a multi-ethnic population, and incorporate refined machine learning algorithms to improve measurementaccuracy in pigmented individuals. The successful completion of this phase I proposal will set the stage for afull-scale study in phase II to develop a commercial prototype and perform multicenter trials to characterizeaccuracy and compare performance against traditional techniques in darkly pigmented individuals, ultimatelyhelping reduce healthcare disparities in racial minorities.
Public Health Relevance Statement: PROJECT NARRATIVE
In this proposal, we seek to develop a next-generation high frequency spectroscopic pulse oximeter capable of
reducing pigmentation dependent errors in PPG and oximetry signals, and then further embed Aimloxy LLC
proprietary technologies that facilitate improved machine learning prediction of hypoxia. Ultimately, the
successful completion of this work will set the stage for clinical validation of a simple finger clip style product with
a next generation hardware design ideally suited to inform powerful machine learning algorithms, which can
ultimately reduce healthcare disparities.
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