Various studies have shown that most of the congestive heart patients are bad at keeping track of their health after discharge from the hospital. It could be due to a lack of cardiovascular monitoring equipment at home or just carelessness. No matter what the case is, a team of researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York has come up with a toilet seat that will help track a patients heart health during those minutes while taking a dump.
This toilet seat, which would be provided for home-based health monitoring after discharge, is equipped with an electrocardiogram, ballistocardiogram, and a photoplethysmogram to keep track of heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation levels, weight, and stroke volume.
This heart-monitoring toilet seat monitors patients as soon as they sit on it. The evaluation is based on a special algorithm that provides alerts of any deteriorating condition.
The seat, which can be retrofitted to an existing commode, aims to lower hospital readmission rate in patients with congestive heart failure, which is currently very alarming – according to Nicholas Conn, a postdoctoral fellow at RIT and founder, CEO of Heart Health Intelligence, “typically, within 30 days of hospital discharge, 25 percent of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted.”
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The innovative heart-monitoring toilet seat wants to make it easier for heart patients to track their health condition in the comfort of the home.
Conn and team are working on commercializing this tech, which has been proven clinically effective as hospital-standard monitoring equipment, through Heart Health Intelligence to have it approved by the FDA. Check out more information and results of the toilet seat at mHealth journal.
Via: DigitalTrends
