---
title: Automated Dosing Held Hospital Patients in the Safe Oxygen Range 85 Percent of the Time, Against 63 Under Manual Care
description: A 300-patient randomized trial across four US hospitals found automated oxygen dosing kept patients in the target range 85 percent of the time, against 63 percent by hand.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-08-03T19:48:27.033Z
canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/automated-oxygen-dosing-hospital-trial-save-o2
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/o2matic-pro100-oxygen-controller-95602.webp
categories: Longevity & Science
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Rich Health Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

In current hospital practice, a patient's oxygen supply is set by hand. A nurse or respiratory therapist checks a reading, turns the flow to match it, and moves on. The setting holds until someone comes back to check again, and in the gap between those checks a patient's oxygen level can drift too low or too high before anyone notices.

A clinical trial led by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus measured that gap, then tested whether a machine watching the reading continuously could close it. The trial, called SAVE-O2 AI, enrolled 300 adults at four US hospitals who had just started supplemental oxygen for acute respiratory illness, traumatic injury, burns or surgical recovery. Half were managed the usual way. The other half were switched to an automated system that reads a patient's oxygen level through a pulse oximeter, a small sensor clipped to the fingertip that estimates blood oxygen using light, and adjusts the flow on its own.

## Patients on the Automated System Spent 85 Percent of Their Time in Range

Patients on the automated system spent 85 percent of their time in their target oxygen range, compared with 63 percent for patients managed the standard way, [according to the results reported by CU Anschutz](https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/cu-anschutz-led-trial-finds-ai-system-improves-oxygen-delivery-in-hospital-patients). The automated group also spent less time with low blood oxygen and less time with high blood oxygen, and needed fewer manual adjustments from nursing and respiratory staff. Serious adverse events did not increase. Too little oxygen can harm a patient's organs, and too much can be harmful as well.

“Our findings show that autonomous oxygen titration can help patients remain in their target range more consistently while reducing both under and over oxygenation,” said Adit Ginde, the trial's principal investigator and senior associate dean for clinical research at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine. “This technology has the potential to fundamentally change how supplemental oxygen is delivered in both civilian and military medicine.”

> "Oxygen is one of the most widely used therapies in medicine yet even in 2026, it is still managed largely through repeated manual adjustments made by clinicians."
> — Adit Ginde, principal investigator, CU Anschutz School of Medicine

## The Target Band Is 90 to 96 Percent, Aiming for 93

The trial defined the target as a blood oxygen saturation of 90 to 96 percent, aiming for 93 percent, tracked continuously through the same kind of noninvasive pulse oximetry used at the bedside, [according to the trial's public listing](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06374225). That is the band clinicians are already trying to hit with periodic manual checks. The trial ran at the University of Colorado in Aurora, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. It started in April 2024 and its primary data collection finished in December 2025.

“This system responds in real time, helping patients spend more time in their target oxygen range with less manual adjustment,” said David Douin, the trial's first author and an associate professor of anesthesiology at CU Anschutz.

## The Device Used in the Trial Is Not Yet Cleared for the US Market

The system tested was the O2matic PRO100, made by O2matic, a Danish company whose closed loop technology reads a patient's oxygen saturation in real time and adjusts flow to match it, alerting staff when a patient needs attention beyond what the system handles. O2matic's own site describes the technology as CE marked and commercial in Europe, and states that it is awaiting market clearance in the United States.

## Researchers Expect Less Manual Adjustment to Ease Nursing Workload

Researchers said the drop in manual adjustments may translate into less workload for nurses and respiratory therapists, and described that as a question for future study rather than a finding of this trial. The result follows earlier work from the CU Anschutz Combat Medicine Research Center, where the group led by Douin and Ginde has shown that targeting moderate oxygen levels is safe in critically ill and injured patients and may cut unnecessary exposure to higher levels. SAVE-O2 AI was presented at the Military Health System Research Symposium alongside its publication in JAMA Internal Medicine.

## FAQ

**Q: What is a normal oxygen saturation level in the hospital?**
In this trial, clinicians aimed to keep patients between 90 and 96 percent blood oxygen saturation, with 93 percent as the target point.

**Q: Can too much oxygen be harmful?**
Yes. Researchers noted that while too little oxygen can harm a patient's organs, too much oxygen can also be harmful, which is part of why the trial measured time spent both below and above the target range rather than focusing on low oxygen alone.

**Q: What is closed loop oxygen therapy?**
It refers to a system that continuously measures a patient's blood oxygen, typically through a pulse oximeter on the fingertip, and adjusts the oxygen flow automatically in response, rather than waiting for a clinician to check the reading and adjust it by hand.