Novel Pulse Oximeter Sonification Mappings: Improving Oxygen Saturation Monitoring for Vulnerable Neonates

Monitoring and maintaining premature neonates’ oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels within the recommended range of 90 – 95% has proved challenging for clinicians and carers. The health risks associated with oxygen being too high or too low when these neonates are on oxygen support can prove fatal. In a series of two experiments we explore if monitoring SpO2 can be improved by redesigning the auditory component of pulse oximeters, using novel sonification mappings. The aim of this research is to create an auditory signal that better informs clinicians and carers when SpO2 is in or out of the recommended range. Experiment 1 examines whether participants identify range better with a novel mapping, called the Shoulder mapping, than with a log-linear control mapping. The Shoulder mapping employs increasingly large pitch differences as oxygen saturation levels move out of the recommended range into abnormal ranges. However, the Shoulder mapping does not significantly improve participants’ accuracy in identifying oxygen saturation levels over the loglinear control mapping. In Experiment 2 an intermittent reference tone or ‘beacon’ is combined with the log-linear mapping. Participants identify oxygen saturation range much more accurately when they use the LogLinear+Beacon mapping than when they use the log-linear control mapping. Although further research is required to refine the beacon and test its use in clinical settings, it offers strong potential as a solution to the problem of monitoring the oxygen saturation levels of neonates on oxygen support. The large improvement in range accuracy identification that the beacon offers suggests that this clear and distinct auditory marker could be applied in the challenging monitoring environment of neonatal inter-hospital retrieva