Reliability of smartphone measurements of vital parameters: A prospective study using a reference method.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the accuracy of HR and SaO data obtained using a smartphone compared with the measurements of a vital signs monitor (VSM) and an arterial blood gas (ABG) device, respectively.

Material And Methods: In this single-center prospective study, the HR and SaO measurements were performed using the built-in sensor and light source of a Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone and compared to the results of VSM and ABG device. The Bland-Altman analysis was used to evaluate and visualize the agreement between the methods.

Results: The data of 101 patients were analyzed. There was a high correlation between HR measured by smartphone and HR measured by VSM [P < 0.0001; 0.9918 (95% CI = 0.987-0.994)]. In addition, the SaO values obtained by smartphone were highly correlated with those by ABG (P < 0.0001; 0.968 (95% CI = 0.952-0.978)).

Conclusion: The HR and SaO values obtained by smartphone were found to be consistent with the measurements of the reference devices. With the growing use of smartphone technology in the health field, we foresee that patients will be able to make their own triage assessment before presenting to the hospital.