oximeters, work less effectively on patients with darker skin. According to the research papers, this may have contributed to thousands of unnecessary deaths during the global health crisis over the past year and a half.
“It is easy to look at a machine and assume that everyone’s getting the same experience. But technologies are created and developed by people, and so bias, however inadvertent, can be an issue here too. So questions like who is writing the code, how a product is tested and who is sitting round the boardroom table are critical – especially when it comes to our health,” the Health Secretary in the Sunday Times.
“The pandemic has brought this issue to the fore, but the issue of bias within medical devices has been ducked for far too long,” he added. “Although we have very high standards for these technologies in this country – and people should keep coming forward for the treatment they need – we urgently need to know more about the bias in these devices, and what impact it is having on the frontline.”
Following the announcement of the review, Javid was asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show if he thought people had died as a result of the aforementioned limitations in oxygen-measuring devices, to which he responded saying, “I think possibly yes, yes. I don’t have the full facts.”
Javid is the first UK Health Secretary of colour, and he is expected to conduct the review in partnership with American counterpart, Xavier Becerra, the first Latino Health Secretary of the United States. The inquiry will also focus on gender bias in medical devices. For instance, it would cover how MRI scanners can be made accessible to pregnant or breastfeeding women, Javid said.
