CHESA Expands Global Work on Pulse Oximetry

The UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) team recently received another $100,000 award from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation initially supported CHESA’s work in 2022 with the Open Oximetry Project. This new phase 2 collaboration enables the team to expand that work and address a longstanding problem: pulse oximeters tend to be less accurate in people with darker skin.

In phase 1, the team generated a significant amount of the evidence being used by the United States FDA and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) regulatory changes aimed at fixing this issue, but the CHESA team believes that, “more work is needed to make these changes effective, especially in underrepresented populations.” 

They’re planning to address these necessary changes in three ways: 

1. Building a Hypoxia Lab in Uganda to perform device testing in a population that has been historically excluded from medical device research. This lab will be a global resource, accelerating device evaluation in real-world settings.
2. Expanding the open-access dataset of oximeter performance, especially across diverse skin tones and devices. This is essential for improving testing standards and supporting manufacturers and researchers.
3. Supporting AI innovation by providing high-quality, diverse training data for teams developing machine learning models that can reduce bias in pulse oximetry and related technologies.
    

This partnership with the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation is catalytic, allowing the team to begin building and certifying the Uganda lab, collect new data from diverse populations, and continue sharing these data openly with researchers, manufacturers, and regulators. It also positions CHESA to attract additional grants and partnerships.

The CHESA group currently has other grant applications pending and are optimistic, despite challenging funding conditions in global health. The infrastructure and data they’re currently building will form the backbone of future efforts to improve not just oximetry, but equitable medical technology more broadly.

This project is a joint effort between the UCSF Hypoxia Lab, CHESA, and the Association of Anesthesiologists of Uganda (AAU).

The members of the team working on the project and their roles include:

• Dr. Michael Lipnick (UCSF): PI for the grant and at the UCSF Hypoxia Lab, currently in Uganda setting up the lab. He will continue to travel to Uganda to help train local investigators and support study activities until the lab is fully set up.
• Dr. Cornelius Sendagire (AAU): Co-Investigator for the grant and lead for the Uganda Hypoxia Lab including overseeing data collection and the local team.
• Dr. Tyler Law (UCSF): Co-investigator for the grant, PI at the UCSF Hypoxia Lab and data lead for the project. He will lead activities related to the open access data repository and ML efforts.
• Dr. Ronald Bisegerwa (AAU): CHESA-Lifebox Fellow and Co-investigator
• Dr. Fred Bulamba (AAU): Co-investigator
   

Looking ahead in the short term, the focus is on launching the Uganda Hypoxia Lab and generating new, representative data for pulse oximetry performance. For the longer term, CHESA aims to expand this model to other types of medical technologies and support locally led innovations in device manufacturing.

While the global funding landscape is shifting and challenging, the CHESA team remains committed to doing this work in partnership with communities and collaborators who are too often left out of innovation and impact. The team members shared their gratitude to the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation for their continued collaboration, noting that, “this kind of flexible, equity-focused funding is rare and essential. We’re also thankful to the Department of Anesthesia for continually supporting CHESA and making this work possible.”