title: The effectiveness of pulse oximetry sonification enhanced with tremolo and brightness for distinguishing clinically important oxygen saturation ranges: a laboratory study.
abstract: 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 (
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: Schools of ITEE, Psychology, and Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Sanderson
authors.affiliation: Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: N A B
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: School of ITEE, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Arizona, Tucson, USA.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Loeb
mesh_terms: D056902:Clinical Alarms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010092:Oximetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013010:Sonication; D013016:Sound; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: auditory alarms; auditory displays; patient monitoring; pulse oximetry; sonification