The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024–2025
EarSwitch moves pulse oximetry into the ear canal, where every skin is the same colour
Airquity by EarSwitch and Havas Lynx reads oxygen from the inner ear, dodging finger-oximeter bias — two Cannes Silvers and an NHS fast-track.
EarSwitch
What it had to solve
Finger-clip pulse oximeters judge blood oxygen by passing light through skin, and they have been shown to overestimate oxygen saturation in darker skin — a gap of a few percent can be the difference between a normal reading and a low one. EarSwitch wanted an oximeter that works equally for every skin colour.
How it works
Finger-clip pulse oximeters, used to measure blood oxygen in everything from emergency rooms to home monitoring, work by passing light through the skin — and they have a documented flaw: they can overestimate oxygen saturation in people with darker skin, by as much as 7% in some studies. A few percent can be the difference between receiving oxygen support and being sent home.
EarSwitch, a Manchester-based medical technology company, set out with agency Havas Lynx to design the bias out of the device. Their insight was anatomical: in the inner ear canal, everyone's skin is the same colour. Airquity, empowered by EarMetrics®-Oximetry, is a non-invasive biometric sensor that takes medical-grade oxygen and health readings from the inner ear, where melanin cannot distort the light.
The idea was introduced to the world with a film that dramatised the racial inequity of finger oximetry, and it travelled fast: Silver Lions in both Pharma and Innovation at Cannes 2024, a Silver in Design (Innovation in Design) at Cannes 2025, and a One Show Bronze Pencil in IP & Product Design.
EarSwitch was accepted onto the Innovative Devices Access Pathway, a UK programme that accelerates the adoption of medical devices into the NHS, and aims to make Airquity the first racially agnostic pulse oximeter — equitable access to care for an estimated 380 million people in the UK, USA and Europe, with a global potential of 3.5 billion.
Why it lands
- It attacks the root of the bias rather than correcting for it: the ear canal is the one measurement site where skin colour stops mattering.
- A genuinely new product category — the 'core oximeter' — emerges from one elegant anatomical insight.
- The campaign connected a technical design decision to a human-rights issue, making racial equity in medical devices visible to a mainstream audience.
- Winning at Cannes and gaining NHS fast-track access both flowed from the same idea, showing product innovation and communication working as one.
What it did
Airquity put oximeter bias on a global stage — Silvers in Pharma and Innovation at Cannes 2024, a Silver in Design (Innovation in Design) at Cannes 2025, and a One Show Bronze — while EarSwitch was accepted onto the NHS's Innovative Devices Access Pathway to accelerate the device into care.
What you can take
When a measurement is biased by the body part it uses, redesign the measurement site rather than only the algorithm: moving to the ear canal removed melanin from the equation entirely.
Since then
EarSwitch continues clinical development of EarMetrics®-Oximetry through the NHS Innovative Devices Access Pathway, with the aim of making Airquity the first racially agnostic pulse oximeter; the company says the device could make quality monitoring equitable for 380 million people in the UK, USA and Europe, with global potential of 3.5 billion. The Airquity film kept collecting awards — Silvers at Cannes 2024 (Pharma, Innovation) and Cannes 2025 (Design) and a One Show Bronze — keeping the bias conversation alive.
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