| Environmental issues and other specifications | Oximeters should comply with relevant standards such as International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 69691-1 and International Standards Organisation (ISO)9919:2005. Units should work reliably in a wide range of operating temperatures (e.g. 10°C to 40°C) and humidities (e.g. relative humidity 15–95%). |
| Physical features | Units should be robust enough to withstand falls of 1 m onto concrete. Portability and ease of handling is desirable. |
| Power supply | Units must be able to be powered by rechargeable batteries, normal batteries and mains supply electricity. |
| Ease of use | Oximeters should be intuitive and simple to use. Interfaces should be language free to the extent possible, although it may be suitable to have configurable language displays. |
| Alarms | Alarms indicating breaches of safe limits of oxygen saturation should be audible and supplemented with a visible change of display (such as flashing). Ideally an alarm should indicate sensor misplacement. |
| Oxygen saturation | Arterial oxygen saturation should be measured between clinically relevant limits (e.g. 70–100%) with reasonable accuracy (e.g. ±2% of true saturation). |
| Pulse display | The device should have a plethysmograph display of the pulse (either waveform or bar graph). The unit should measure pulse rate between clinically appropriate limits (e.g. 20–200 beats·min−1) to ±3 beats·min−1. The pulse rate should also be displayed numerically and be represented by an audible tone, which changes as saturation levels deteriorate. |
| Display | The readout should be clearly visible from 5 m. |
| Sensors/probes | Probes should be as robust as possible. A range of sensors covering various sizes and ages of patient should be available, and all probes should be reusable. |
| Warranties and maintenance | The expected life of the oximeter and probes should be specified and appropriate warranties provided. User and service manuals should be provided, electronically and by hard copy, in a variety of languages. |