Opinion: It’s time to remove skin color from the Apgar Score for newborns
The Apgar Score for newborns has saved countless lives. But it’s time for a change.
In medicine, inertia can be a strangely powerful force, but Virginia Apgar never succumbed to it. She brought incredible energy to her work in anesthesia, neonatology, and dysmorphology (the study of birth defects) and questioned the status quo when she thought it might save lives.
With gratitude for her tireless work, we have reevaluated the eponymous health assessment Apgar developed more than 70 years ago and concluded that one of its components — skin color — should be abandoned. It’s a step Apgar herself might have encouraged; she knew this part of her evaluation method was weaker than the others. We have a chance now to correct that bias.
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