First International Consultation Meeting 29-30 October 2008

The Global Pulse Oximetry First International Consultation Meeting took place at the World Health Organization in Geneva from 29-30 October 2008. The Chair of the Consultation was Dr Atul Gawande - Lead, WHO Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative. Dr Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Consultation objectives

• Establish the importance of pulse oximetry as a vital component of every operation in the context of the Safe Surgery Saves Lives project and the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist.
• Discuss the need for universal pulse oximetry as a standard monitoring tool during surgery and characterize the pulse oximetry gap – why it exists, where it exists and how big it is.
• Establish a set of specifications for a low cost pulse oximeter that could be manufactured and distributed to low resource settings.
• Discuss procurement and distribution options for widespread introduction of pulse oximetry.
• Discuss how the success of our intervention should be measured.
• Develop an oximetry training programme for anaesthesia providers.

To access the consultation materials, please click on the link below: