Evaluation of a New Smartphone Powered Low-cost Pulse Oximeter Device

BACKGROUND: Measurement of blood oxygen saturation is a vital part of monitoring coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Pulse oximetry is commonly used to measure blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate for appropriate clinical intervention. But the majority of direct-to-consumer grade pulse oximeters did not pass through in-vivo testing, which results in their accuracy being questionable. Besides this, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exposed the limitations of the device in resource limited areas since independent monitoring is needed for COVID-19 patients. The purpose of this study was to perform an in-vivo evaluation of a newly developed smartphone powered low-cost pulse oximeter. METHODS: The new prototype of a smartphone powered pulse oximeter was evaluated against the standard pulse oximeter by taking measurements from fifteen healthy volunteers. The accuracy of measurement was evaluated by calculating the percentage error and standard deviation. A repeatability and reproducibility test were carried out using the ANOVA method. RESULTS: The average accuracy for measuring spot oxygen saturation (SPO2) and pulse rate (PR) was 99.18% with a standard deviation of 0.57 and 98.78% with a standard deviation of 0.61, respectively, when compared with the standard pulse oximeter device. The repeatability and reproducibility of SPO2 measurements were 0.28 and 0.86, respectively, which is in the acceptable range. CONCLUSION: The new prototype of smartphone powered pulse oximeter demonstrated better performance compared to the existing low-cost fingertip pulse oximeters. The device could be used for independent monitoring of COVID-19 patients at health institutions and also for home care.