Leveraging the naturally occurring spotted pigmentation of Hampshire swine to assess the impact of skin pigmentation on pulse oximeters and other light-based medical devices (Conference Presentation)

Light-based devices, like pulse oximeters and imaging systems, detect light after it interacts with skin. Melanin’s strong optical absorption may cause disparate device performance between lightly and darkly pigmented people. It's critical that devices work equitably across the full spectrum of pigmentation, but there in an unmet need for a means of device testing where pigment varies while other physiologic variables are constant. We address this need by validating devices in Hampshire swine that have large patches of pigmented and nonpigmented skin (PS, NPS). Placing duplicate devices on PS and NPS patches in the same animal during device validation studies directly compares the impact of pigmentation on device performance while controlling for other physiologic factors. This model is a novel approach to study how pigment impacts light-based medical modalities, which is critical to ensuring equitable device performance across the full spectrum of skin pigmentation.