• Posted August 5, 2026

AI-Managed Oxygen Promotes More Stable Oxygen Levels In Patients

AI-driven oxygen delivery can help hospitalized patients maintain better blood oxygen levels, potentially speeding their recovery, a new study says.

Patients treated with AI-automated oxygen spent 85% of their time in the target oxygen range, compared with 63% in people whose oxygen was manually managed by hospital staff, researchers reported Aug. 3 in JAMA Internal 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,” senior researcher Dr. Adit Ginde said in a news release.

“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 Ginde, a senior associate dean for clinical research and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. “This technology has the potential to fundamentally change how supplemental oxygen is delivered in both civilian and military medicine.”

For the new study, researchers recruited 300 people receiving oxygen as part of their treatment at four U.S. hospitals. These patients were suffering from acute respiratory illness, traumatic injury or burns, or were recovering from surgery.

The patients were randomly assigned to either receive doctor-managed oxygen or AI-managed oxygen, in which the device continuously monitored their oxygen levels and adjusted their oxygen flow in real time.

Results showed that people who had AI managing their oxygen levels spent less time with either too little or too much oxygen in their bloodstream.

“Oxygen levels can change quickly in hospitalized patients,” lead researcher Dr. David Douin, an associate professor of anesthesiology at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, said in a news release. “This system responds in real time, helping patients spend more time in their target oxygen range with less manual adjustment.”

AI-managed oxygen also can reduce workload for nurses and respiratory therapists, allowing clinicians to focus on other aspects of patient care, researchers said.

They next plan to test the use of AI-managed oxygen in emergency transports and other pre-hospital settings, such as on the battlefield.

"When you are caring for a wounded service member hours from a hospital, oxygen runs short and so does the medic's attention," researcher Dr. Vik Bebarta, chair of emergency medicine and founding director of the CU Anschutz Combat Medicine Research Center, said in a news release.

"A device that adjusts oxygen on its own takes one urgent task off their hands so they can focus on everything else the patient needs,” he said.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on blood oxygen levels.

SOURCE: University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, news release, Aug. 3, 2026