Toilet Seat That Detects Congestive Heart Failure Gets Ready to Start Commercialization

With 1 million new cases of congestive heart failure diagnosed each year, a breakthrough product makes it easier for hospitals to monitor patients with this disease in the comfort of their homes.

A cardiovascular surveillance system based on the toilet seat created by a team of researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology aims to reduce readmission rates to hospital patients with congestive heart failure. The toilet seats, which will be imported via the FDA's licensing process by the Heart Health Intelligence research company, would be purchased by hospitals and distributed to patients with heart failure after their release. The toilet seats are equipped to measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart and to monitor the heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation rate and weight and systolic volume of the patient, which corresponds to the amount of blood extracted from the heart with each pumping. beat. Algorithms analyze the data and, with subsequent developments, will alert advanced service providers of the deterioration of the state. A report will be sent to cardiologists who will then determine if an intervention is necessary.

Nicholas Conn, a postdoctoral fellow at RIT and founder and CEO of Heart Health Intelligence, is part of the university team that developed the toilet seats.

"Typically, within 30 days of leaving the hospital, 25% of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted," Conn said. "After 90 days out of the hospital, 45% of patients are readmitted, hospitals to readmit patients for heart failure."

Conn, the general manager of the company, further explains that, if the national average for readmission rates is used, the penalty alone for the readmission of 150 patients is about $ 500,000 a year. The total cost of HHI's provision of 150 monitored toilet seats to 150 patients is $ 200,000. With this investment, he says, hospital systems will save more than double their initial investment in one year.

According to Conn, who earned three RIT degrees – a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 2011 and 2013, respectively, and a PhD in Microsystems Engineering in 2016 – the system will detect deterioration conditions before patients even realize that they are symptomatic. And with the rapid analysis of data, interventions can be as simple as a change of medication or a short visit to the office, instead of an admission to the hospital.

HHI, which joined RIT's Venture Creations business incubator earlier this year, is now focused on advancing the product. The team is actively involved in writing grant and networking applications, and testing on human subjects and preclinical studies is well underway. Conn and his team are working on product approval with the FDA and its deployment across the country.

###

To learn more about the project's research, visit https: //the health.Jmir.org /2019 /1 /e12419 /.

For more information, contact Vienna McGrain at 585-475-4952 or [email protected].