re: Thermometers are racist

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Why are fevers being detected less in Black patients when using temporal thermometers? Bhavani and colleagues suggest skin emissivity (a property potentially related to skin pigmentation) could play a role in inaccurate temperature readings. Alternatively, systematic sub-optimal use of the temporal thermometer (e.g., not scanning the forehead sufficiently) could contribute to the inaccuracy.

According to the researchers, the temporal artery thermometer used in this study has been evaluated in more than 100 clinical studies, but there have been no robust evaluations of the accuracy of this technology by race prior to its widespread adoption.

There were study limitations noted including: this was a retrospective analysis, there was an inability to evaluate temperature differences in Asian and Hispanic patients due to small sample sizes and there may have been potential selection bias of patients with paired measurements.

The research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences # K23GM144867.

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