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The effectiveness of pulse oximetry sonification enhanced with tremolo and brightness for distinguishing clinically important oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory study
Author(s) -
Paterson E.,
Sanderson P. M.,
Paterson N. A. B.,
Liu D.,
Loeb R. G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.839
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2044
pISSN - 0003-2409
DOI - 10.1111/anae.13424
Subject(s) - sonification , pulse oximetry , auditory display , saturation (graph theory) , medicine , oxygen saturation , oxygen , brightness , target range , range (aeronautics) , pulse (music) , audiology , acoustics , anesthesia , computer science , speech recognition , chemistry , artificial intelligence , materials science , physics , telecommunications , mathematics , optics , organic chemistry , combinatorics , detector , composite material
Summary Our study examined the effectiveness of pulse oximetry sonification enhanced with acoustic tremolo and brightness to help listeners differentiate clinically relevant oxygen saturation ranges. In a series of trials lasting 30 s each, 76 undergraduate participants identified final oxygen saturation range (Target: 100% to 97%; Low: 96% to 90%; Critical: 89% and below), and detected threshold transitions into and out of the target range using conventional sonification (n = 38) or enhanced sonification (n = 38). Median ( IQR [range]) accuracy for range identification with the conventional sonification was 80 (70–85 [45–95])%, whereas with the enhanced sonification it was 100 (99–100 [80–100])%; p < 0.001. Accuracy for detecting threshold transitions with the conventional sonification was 60 (50–75 [30–95])%, but with the enhanced sonification it was 100 (95–100 [75–100]%; p < 0.001. Participants can identify clinically meaningful oxygen saturation ranges and detect threshold transitions more accurately with enhanced sonification than with conventional sonification.