Dr Sharon Dixon

Brief Outline:

Dr Sharon Dixon is a GP and NIHR doctoral research fellow at Oxford University, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. Sharon worked on the primary care front line throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Sharon Dixon explains what a pulse oximeter is and what it was used for during Covid.

My name is Sharon Dixon and I’m a GP. 
 
This is a pulse oximeter which is a little device that sits on your finger, sometimes you put them on toes, but it’s usually fingers.
 
And they shine a light through your finger and it helps tell what your heart rate is and what the level of oxygen in your blood is.
 
These were used quite often during Covid so if you went to any clinics for example or you saw a health professional for an assessment when you had Covid or Covid symptoms you may well have met one of these.
 
You might have had it checked when you were sort of sitting quietly or while you were breathing. Sometimes we use them on people who have walked around for a little bit to see if the oxygen levels were holding steady or staying the same when we did that.
 
These are more reliable than a smart phone reading which sort of bounces light off the skin.
 
Readings can be changed a little bit by things like nail polish, henna or sometimes if you’ve got poor circulation or very cold hands.
 
One of the things that can be helpful if you did have one at home is to know what your normal levels are and then to monitor for any changes or changes in your patterns or trend, including when you walk around, and that could have been one of the things that was quite helpful to monitor.
 
One of the other ways they were used in Covid in England was there was a scheme where you might be given one by a health professional who would have given it to you with a plan and a symptom diary and some follow up calls, and its just part of the tools to assess how people were feeling. It helped us look for oxygen levels that were very low that we might not have otherwise known about.
 
But it is really important to remember that it is only one part of the picture and at any point if anybody oxygen levels didn’t seem right or their symptoms didn’t seem right or they were worried about any aspect of how they were or how those might be related to each other it would be absolutely important not to rely on any one thing but to immediately discuss that with a health professional.