The Evaluation of Remote Monitoring Technology Across Participants With Different Skin Tones

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Health Informatics
• Remote Patient Monitoring

Background:

• Vital sign monitoring is crucial for patient care, with non-invasive, contactless methods offering advanced solutions.
• Concerns exist regarding bias and accuracy in current remote monitoring technologies, particularly for individuals with darker skin tones.
• Limited research has addressed the performance disparities across different skin tones in vital sign monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a benchmark for remote vital sign monitoring solutions compared to medical devices.
• To evaluate the accuracy of remote monitoring for heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) across various skin tones.
• To address concerns about potential demographic bias in contactless health monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed approximately 330 videos from 90 patients to compare remote monitoring with a medical device.
• Classified participants into three skin tone groups using the Fitzpatrick scale (1-2, 3-4, 5-6).
• Measured heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) metrics, including inter-beat interval (IBI), standard deviation of normal to normal heartbeats (SDNN), and root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD).

Main Results:

• The proposed remote monitoring methodology achieved a mean absolute error of 3 bpm for heart rate estimation across all subgroups.
• Accurate heart rate variability (HRV) measurements were obtained: HRV-IBI (10 ms), HRV-SDNN (14 ms), and HRV-RMSSD (22 ms).
• No significant performance decrease or error trend was observed across different skin tone groups, indicating consistent accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The developed remote monitoring methodology demonstrates acceptable agreement levels for vital sign metrics.
• Skin tone was found to have no impact on the accuracy of the monitoring results, ensuring equitable performance.
• The technology empowers users to monitor their general well-being and improve overall health outcomes.