UK takes action against racial bias in medical equipment

The UK called on Sunday (21) for international action on the problem of medical devices such as oximeters, which work better on people with lighter skin, saying the disparities may have cost the lives of ethnic minority patients during the pandemic of Covid-19.

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he had commissioned a review of the issue after learning that oximeters, which measure the level of oxygen in the blood and are vital for evaluating Covid’s patients, give less accurate readings in patients with darker skin. .

“This is systemic across the world. It’s a racial bias in some medical instruments. It’s not intentional, but it exists, and oximeters are a really good example of this,” Javid said in an interview with the BBC.

Asked whether people might have died from Covid-19 as a result of the crash, Javid said, “I think it’s possible, yes. I don’t have the full facts.”

The review will try to identify where there is systematic racial bias and risk with current equipment and recommend how issues should be addressed in creating medical devices, from design to use, the British Health Ministry said in a statement.

He said he expected to present initial findings in late January.

Javid said the reason for the accuracy discrepancies is that much medical equipment, drugs, procedures and manuals were created in white-majority countries.

He said he plans to work with other countries to tackle the problem and had already talked about it with his American counterpart, who was just as interested as he was.

Javid said he became aware of the problem after examining why in Britain people from black ethnic groups and other minorities were disproportionately affected by Covid-19, with higher rates of ICU admissions and deaths.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves.