Hi everyone,
My name is Sukky Nd-Ezuma and I am a rising junior and a Computer Science major and Data Science minor in Gettysburg college. My project is on a medical device known as a pulse oximeter. A pulse oximeter is a device used to check the oxygen level in the blood. This device uses two lights the RED and Infrared Light(IR Light) and a sensor that measures the amount of light passing through the blood. Recently, it was discovered by FDA during the covid-19 pandemic that a lot of wrong data was gotten from this device when used on a Person of Color compared to Caucasians. My hypothesis is that these lights are absorbed by the skin color before reaching the blood for data collection which results in giving inaccurate data. I intend on rebuilding the pulse oximeter and deduce a way to make the data more accurate for everyone.
In my first week, I was opportune to be in Nigeria where I collected data using a pulse oximeter purchased from the same country and one purchased from the United States of America. This data comprised of the following information; age, sex, device used( Nigeria or USA), %SPO2(oxygen level in blood), and bpm (heartbeat per minute). Returning to the USA a similar procedure was carried out. This data would be compared to visualize its differences and would also be compared to the pulse oximeter I plan on building.
