Trump's anti-DEI initiatives could hamper pulse oximeter research, doctors worry
The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten to derail efforts to fix racial disparities associated with pulse oximeters — just as the federal government was finally making headway on the matter.
The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten to derail efforts to fix racial disparities associated with pulse oximeters — just as the federal government was finally making headway on the matter.
“We are very concerned,” said Dr. Michael Lipnick, an anesthesiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, whose work is dedicated to resolving how pulse oximeters perform on a variety of skin tones. “We’ve been trying to figure out where the money is going to come from next.”
Eighty percent of Lipnick’s research funding has typically come from federal health agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The future of that money is now in question. Just hours after he was sworn in for a second term last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning DEI initiatives. While that order primarily focused on ways in which employees are hired, there is concern about spillover into pulse oximeter studies intended to expand the number of participants with darker skin tones.
That is, how can researchers seek out people of color to fill gaps in research while adhering to new directives to stop focusing on race?
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