In the near future, when patients suffering from congestive heart failure are discharged from the hospital, they might be given a unique and special toilet seat to take home with them. The gadget will be able to measure the vital signs of the patient every time that they go to the bathroom. It will send alerts if heart trouble is detected.
The amazing toilet seat has been created by a team at the Rochester Institute of Technology and features an electrocardiogram, ballistocardiogram, and photoplethysmogram. This enables the toilet seat to measure the heart rate, blood pressure, body weight, blood oxygenation levels, and stroke volume of the patient. For those who are not aware, the stroke volume is the blood’s amount that is pumped out by the heart during each beat.
A unique algorithm then analyzes the data and ascertains if the condition of the patient is deteriorating or not. The toilet seat can help carry out a diagnosis even before any symptoms show up. Once the toilet seat has undergone further development, it will also be able to send a notification to the user’s physician about the patient’s condition.
In most cases, a simple visit to the doctor’s office might suffice, or even minor adjustment in the medication is all that would be needed. This would be more economical and less disruptive as opposed to getting readmitted into the hospital. The readmission to the hospital is a common occurrence for patients that are recovering from congestive heart failure.
Postdoctoral fellow, Nicholas Conn said, ‘Typically, within 30 days of hospital discharge, 25 percent of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted. After 90 days of hospital discharge, 45 percent of patients are readmitted.’ As of now, the toilet seat is being developed by a spin-off company by the name of Hearth Health Intelligence with Nicholas Conn as the CEO. The research has been published in the journal mHealth.