Novel Pulse Oximetry Sonifications for Neonatal Oxygen Saturation Monitoring

Abstract

Adding a beacon to the variable-pitch pulse oximeter sound may help clinicians identify when, and by how much, a neonate's SpO2 deviates from the target range, particularly during patient transport situations when auditory information becomes essential.

The effectiveness of pulse oximetry sonification enhanced with tremolo and brightness for distinguishing clinically important oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory study

“…The rate of the tones represents heart rate and rhythm, and the pitch of the tones represents SpO 2 . Current pulse oximeter sonifications rely on a clinician's ability to perceive relative pitch to infer changes in SpO 2 direction, and their ability to perceive absolute pitch to infer absolute SpO 2 levels . However, although most individuals can easily recognise pitch differences, few can identify absolute pitch .…”

“…Commercial pulse oximeters map linear increments of SpO 2 to either fixed or percentage increments in sound frequency (perceived as pitch); the former results in a linear mapping, whereas the latter results in a logarithmic mapping . A logarithmic scale creates approximately equal‐appearing pitch intervals . Under test conditions, clinicians can identify absolute SpO 2 levels more accurately when SpO 2 is mapped to a logarithmic scale than to a linear scale .…”

Effectiveness of enhanced pulse oximetry sonifications for conveying oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory comparison of five auditory displays

“…1 2 12 Adding further sound properties to attract auditory attention to clinically important thresholds was suggested by Watson and Sanderson 13 and recent laboratory investigations demonstrate the potential of this method for enhancing pulse oximeter sonifications. [4][5][6] However, participants in the recent studies focused solely on the task of SpO 2 monitoring in a quiet environment, and there were no alarms used in the control condition.…”

“…In previous work we have found that the presence or absence of 11 formal music training can be a sensitive predictor of participants' performance with auditory alarms 9 and sonifications 4 , but such differences become unimportant if all participants perform above some criterion level with a display. In the present experiment we used block randomisation to ensure equal proportions of participants with and without formal music training in each condition.…”

“…3 Recent research shows that listeners can distinguish designated SpO 2 ranges and transitions into and out of a target range more accurately with an enhanced auditory display (sonification) than with a variable-pitch only sonification. [4][5][6] The enhanced sonifications in these studies comprised variable pitch with the addition of other sound characteristics in non-target ranges. A limitation of these studies was that participants had no other tasks apart from judging SpO 2 ranges and detecting transitions into and out of the target range, whereas during surgery anaesthetists perform many tasks in addition to monitoring a patient's state.…”