# Reduction of Pigmentation Dependent Errors using Spectroscopic Pulse Oximetery

> **NIH NIH R41** · AIMLOXY LLC · 2022 · $256,571

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT
Pulse oximetry is a powerful clinical tool for clinical evaluation of patients with cardiopulmonary compromise,
however, multiple clinical studies have indicated pulse oximetry suffers from overestimation errors in darkly
pigmented individuals, which is a critical mistake in screening for a cardiopulmonary disease, including COVID-
19, and could contribute to reports of outcome disparities in ethnic minorities. Aimloxy, LLC has been developing
proprietary hardware and firmware for High Frequency Pulse Sensing Technology (HF-PST), which represents
a next-generation evolution of photoplethysmography (PPG) pulse sensing technologies, which have
conventionally served as the backbone of pulse oximetry. The Optical Diagnostic Research Laboratory (ODRL)
at Temple University is involved in the development of optical sensing technologies for low-resource settings
and has developed mobile-phone based technologies that include strategies for reducing pigmentation
dependent inaccuracy in transcutaneous sensing of bilirubin levels in African-origin infants. The ODRL, Aimloxy,
along with collaborators from Temple University Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine and Fox School
of Business’ Center for Data Analytics will team together to perform initial development and benchtop
characterization of a next-generation high frequency spectroscopic pulse oximeter capable of reducing
pigmentation dependent errors in PPG and oximetry signals, conduct an initial human subjects feasibility study
on a multi-ethnic population, and incorporate refined machine learning algorithms to improve measurement
accuracy in pigmented individuals. The successful completion of this phase I proposal will set the stage for a
full-scale study in phase II to develop a commercial prototype and perform multicenter trials to characterize
accuracy and compare performance against traditional techniques in darkly pigmented individuals, ultimately
helping reduce healthcare disparities in racial minorities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10385103
- **Project number:** 1R41GM142406-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** AIMLOXY LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Vikas Khurana
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $256,571
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10385103

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10385103, Reduction of Pigmentation Dependent Errors using Spectroscopic Pulse Oximetery (1R41GM142406-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10385103. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*