Why I like the Onyx fingertip Oximeter

1. Not all oximeters are equal (not even close).  When it comes to fingertip oximeters the only one I would personally trust is Nonin.
2. Works with low perfusion (sick people), oddly a lot do not do this, but they get Health Canada approval anyways
3. They are able to filter through motion artifact (a common problem)
4. They are accurate at a wide range of oxygen saturations (with validation) to I an SpO2 mark of 70% (again very few do this and no other fingertip oximeter I know of). Hard to test much lower as you need to make your test subjects hypoxic and there is a limit to how low you can safely go.
5. They can work in the cold (hopefully not an issue in the hospital)
6. Long battery life.  Estimated to be 36 hours of continuous use or 6,000 spot checks.
7. Water resistant
8. Not affected by skin color (I was surprised that many are)
9. Able to be used on pediatrics to adult patients with digit size range of 8 mm to 25.4 mm
10. They are incredibly durable with a drop rating of 55 drops of 1 meter to a concrete floor, most other fingertips ones might make two drops at best.
11. They come with a 4 year warranty (if they stop working they will fix it)
12. If you destroy (serious abuse not covered by the 4 year warranty) or lose it within the first year Nonin will replace it free of charge.  Stipulation here is that you have 30 days from purchase to go online and register the serial number with Nonin.
13. They are free of latex (again other competitors have been known to sell these with latex parts).  Must confess I have not heard of any negative outcomes making the news though.
14. They are free of lead (again when other oximeters have been checked by Nonin they have been found to contain lead)
15. There are numerous validation studies to confirm these oximeters work like they are supposed to.
16. Able to withstand a minimum of 20,000 cleanings with isopropyl alcohol.

Essentially when you look at all the details it is amazing that anyone would purchase any other fingertip oximeter but sadly many think they are all the same and then pick the lowest costing device.

Declaration:  Yes, I sell Nonin products, so I make money when my customers purchase them.  I promote them because I believe in them.

An Oximeter is an Oximeter is an Oximeter… Or is it?

There was a time when I thought all Oximeters were created equal. I used to believe that you picked an Oximeter that looked nice, had the bells and whistles you wanted and you were done. Then I began sales. If I have learned one thing in sales is that many products are not created equal. Some are more or less equal and therefore just a commodity but frequently they are not. As I began to learn more about different Oximeter brands I realized they were anything but equal. Now the good news is that many of the popular brands are very good, though not necessarily equal. Unfortunately there are many brands being marketed that create low quality inaccurate Oximeters and should not be purchased. Nonin is one of the few reliable brands on the market.
One study compared Nonin with two of the better brands on the market (Nellcor and Masimo). This study was looking to see how accurate the Oximeter would be on patients with darker skin pigmentation. Below is the result of this study in a chart on one of Nonin’s brochures. A link to the study is posted below the chart.

Dark Skin Decreases Accuracy of Pulse Oximeter (Comparitive Study)
It is well known that Oximeters tend to lose accuracy at lower saturation’s (generally not an issue as we try very hard not to allow that to occur). What I did not realize was that due to the technological technique Nonin uses to ensure accuracy they are able to maintain accuracy in a linear fashion at lower saturation’s. Nonin refers to this as PureSat technology and it is demonstrated in a Nonin chart below with the study used for this chart linked below the chart.

Tech Bulletin – Comparative Accuracy Testing of Nonin PureSAT

Part of the benefit of this particular technology they are able to provide the only accurate fingertip Oximeter (I know of).
Below are some video links to YouTube demonstrating how the Nonin Onyx fingertip Oximeter compares to other fingertip oximeters.

The point here is that not all oximeters are created equal. I do reference Nellcor and Masimo above and should state that I think they are also high quality oximeters. When you go to purchase an Oximeter be sure to do your due diligence.
My Declaration: Nonin Oximeters are part of the product line I sell. I should also state that as technology advances new lines will become available and while many will be low quality I suspect some will be worth looking at.