Pulse Oximeter – 5 Things You Should Know!

Pulse Oximeter – 5 Things You Should Know!

The invention and marketing of the pulse oximeter was a huge milestone in monitoring the oxygenation of a patient’s blood levels and patient care, enabling the readings to be taken during movement of the patient and when in a relaxed state.

1. Its history goes back to scientific experiments as far back as 1800, further credit for its development combined research studies and experiments by early scientists Lambert, Beer, Bunson and Kirchhoff in 1860. Stoke and Hoppe-Seyler, Nicolai in 1932 and later Krammer and Carl Matthes.  The main principles of the pulse oximeter were developed between 1940 and 1964 by Millikan, Wood and Shaw.

2. In 1972, Takuo Aoyagi, a Japanese bio-engineer, invented the pulse oximeter after measuring oxygen saturation by sending light through the tissues. In 1978 William New, MD, Ph.D., developed the principle further after realizing that infrared and red light measures the blood.

3. In 1970 Hewlett Packard produced and marketed a large, bulky ear oximeter with a difficult to use ear piece. It weighed 35 lbs and cost $10,000. In the 1980s the product expanded onto the world market and is now being used in hospitals, clinics, medical centres, paediatric centres, in operating theatres, critical care areas and in some homes for monitoring oxygen blood levels of asthmatic patients.

4. The oximeter has been adapted, updated and minimized. They are now small and light weight, hand held models and designed to fit onto the fingers. This quick, easy, safe, non-invasive and cost effective device is continuing to make its mark on the medical field.

5. The pulse oximeter has made an enormous impact in medicine and has aided the advancement of patient care in both anaesthesia and critical care. It has been reported that the introduction of pulse oximetry coincided with 90 percent reduction in anaesthesia related deaths.

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Organic electronics could lead to cheap, wearable medical sensors – Phys.Org

Future fitness trackers could soon add blood-oxygen levels to the list of vital signs measured with new technology developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley….UC Berkeley engineers have created a pulse oximeter sensor composed of all-organic optoelectronics that uses red and green light. The red …Read More at ..Organic electronics could lead to cheap, wearable medical sensors

6 Health Care Devices That Could Help Millions of People – Wall St. Cheat Sheet

As the health care that citizens of wealthy, developed countries are familiar with grows more and more sophisticated with constant advances in technology, health care in the developing world is a completely different picture. In countries in Asia and Africa, even as more consumers gain mobile phones, basic, life-saving medical technology is lacking.. Lifebox is a pulse oximeter that ensures safer surgery for patients in . Read More at ..6 Health Care Devices That Could Help Millions of People

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