Hello, this is my first time posting on Straight Dope so I do apologize if I have posted this question in the wrong category.
So long story short, my grandmother uses an oxygen tank 24/7 and she is in search for a simple smart bracelet that measures solely your pulse and oxygen levels. Side note, her sight isn’t the best, and she wants an easy-to-read display.
I have tried searching through Amazon and various tech companies, but all of these bracelets/watches have too many extra features and my Grandma isn’t the most tech-savvy person out there.
I was wondering if possibly there was a medical device (not a smart watch or FitBit) that solely measures the pulse and SpO2 level, and fits as a bracelet? She already has the kind that you wear on your finger for ten seconds, but she wants a wearable one she could use all day.
The bracelets are well known to have accuracy problems. OTOH, the finger units ($12 at Amazon) compare well with professional medical units.
Also, COVID-19 can cause any LED device to read inaccurately low.
There are a bunch of cheap smartwatches with spO2 sensors. As Squink says, the accuracy is questionable, but probably works better than none. I think I’ll buy one just because it’s so cheap.
I’d probably buy a cheap finger spO2 monitor to double check it. My cheap finger sensor seems to correlate pretty well with the one at the doctor’s office.
Why? There are several reasons to not be checking your O2 and heart rate all day and unless her doctor has recommended constant monitoring (even hospitalized patients aren’t monitored constantly outside of critical care units-their ‘vitals’ are checked every 4-8 hours), it is just not needed.
The fingertip meter method should be more than adequate 2 or 3 times a day. I’m a home health nurse and that’s what we do. A watch like the Amazon one will be very frustrating for your Grandma. It will have to be set up, programmed and inevitably troubleshot by you. Imagine how perplexing all those will be for her, as well as needing to recharge it every few days.
Reassure her that the oximeter on her finger is fine, if her doctor thinks she needs more than that the doctor will refer her for residential care.
She mainly wants one to “test herself” and see how long she can go without oxygen.
She’s been using an oxygen machine for about a year now, but obviously she doesn’t use it 24/7 (showering, eating, maybe doing some chores, etc).
She’s also a very stubborn and independent woman who hates this oxygen machine, and lately she’s been testing to see how long she can last without oxygen. I try to tell her that it’s not safe, but she says she only does it in short spurts. Hence why she wants to see if I can find a product/bracelet that she can wear and periodically check from time to time while she is testing herself.
I’ll probably just advise her to give it up and at most just carry around the finger pulse monitor if she continues to push her limits.
Good solution-reading the Amazon watch blurb It sounds like it would be a huge frustration for you and your mom, and not that accurate to boot.
I understand her frustration with the limitations of O2 and the tubing-if she wants to test her limits I’d encourage her to just take the cannula out of her nose and free lance, but still have it on her so she can grab it and put it back on if she feels weak or faint. Having to walk to another room to put it back on might be hard to do when short of O2.
Feel free to put it on me-tell her a home health nurse friend told you. It’s all true.
The athletic type watches (ie Garmin) have SpO2 sensors on them; they also have a companion app for a smart phone or can be viewed on a PC; the larger screens would help with the vision issues. One doesn’t need to use the other watch features if they don’t want to. I believe that the apple watch was trying to become certified as a medical device; the only downside is that that watch requires one to be in the i ecosystem. You can’t use an iwatch with an Android phone so it may be very expensive if there’s a need to buy an iphone, along with having a non-tech savvy person learn a new operating system.