App automates pediatric pulse oximetry screenings

A smartphone application developed at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta seeks to improve patient safety by automating pulse oximetry screenings and improving the accuracy of pulse oximetry interpretations.

Pulse oximetry screenings can save lives by detecting critical congenital heart defects (CCHD) in newborn infants, but manually computing an algorithm applied to pulse oximetry readings to determine the need for further CCHD testing often results in errors. The Pulse Ox Tool automatically applies the algorithm to pulse oximetry readings and testing at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta revealed using the tool resulted in a significantly lower error rate, according to a Nov. 29 statement.

The app is available for free download on devices using iOS, Android and Windows operating systems, and a web-based version is available at www.pulseoxtool.com.