New High-Tech Toilet Seat Can Detect Heart Failure

A restroom cardiovascular monitoring system was created by a team of Rochester Institute of Technology with the aim of reducing hospitalization rates for patients with congestive heart failure. They have developed toilet seats that can detect the user's heart rate at risk of congestive heart failure.

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth magazine published this study shows that toilet seats are equipped to measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart, including blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxidation level, weight and volume of the patient is measured by the amount of blood pumped out of the heart at every beat. This system is placed in a special location that helps it gather the patient's home data that doctors often cannot follow. Data analysis algorithms will be sent to health professionals and if they get worse, they will be alerted in order to get timely intervention.

There was an experiment conducted in 8 weeks on 18 different subjects. The results from clinical and preclinical studies show that the system is positive and accurate.

The team intends to bring this invention to the Food and Drug Administration to quickly deploy this system to everywhere across the country, including hospitals and patients' homes.

According to the data collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States, four deaths are caused by heart disease in the United States, with 630,000 people dying each year from this disease. Obesity, diabetes, lack of physical activity and poor diet are the main causes of heart failure.

Nicholas Conn, an RIT postdoctoral fellow, and co-CEO and founder of Heart Health Intelligence, is a member of the research team to develop high-tech sanitary chairs. He said 25% of patients with congestive heart failure had to return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Moreover, up to 45% of patients were reclaimed by the hospital after 90 days of discharge. Currently, hospitals are being punished by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for readmitting heart failure patient.

This invention helps patients with heart failure can save significant time to return to the hospital and help the hospital save hundreds of dollars. These high-tech latrines will reduce the number of patients hospitalized for an incident after discharge. The remarkable fact is that heart failure is a problem about the way the human heart pumps blood, it’s not really an immediate death sentence.

The American Heart Association says there are not yet any complete treatments for this heart failure, but patients can improve their health by changing drugs, lifestyles, follow-up and continuous health care. Building heart health monitoring systems in toilet seats can make it easier for the patients to check their health and to help doctors keep up with the patient's condition without going to the hospital.