Achieving the goals of health and wellness requires novel approaches to daily monitoring of analytical biomarkers from physiological fluids, which currently cannot be achieved using noninvasive approaches. Our daily excreta – feces and urine – are rich in latent data. In addition to biochemical markers, stool physical characteristics can contribute to the diagnosis and management of many acute and chronic GI conditions.

This project team created the “Smart Sampling Toilet” – a novel device that has the potential to transform healthcare as a noninvasive source of individualized biological data. This device employs hands-off extraction to collect samples of human excreta that can later be used for diagnosis of wellness and disease.

In 2019-2020, the team focused on the engineering development, quality control, refinement, business and regulatory strategy of the Smart Sampling Toilet platform. Team members developed key technical advancements that resulted in a working prototype toilet system and the demonstration of specimen extraction with no sample cross-over contamination overcoming a key technical risk of the approach.

The team also conducted multiple and diverse customer discovery interviews with stakeholders that highlighted the unmet need for automatic tracking of bowel movement particularly for elderly populations. These findings will guide the next stages of the iterative technology approach.  

Timing

Fall 2019 – Summer 2020

Team Outputs

Smart Toilet. Geoffrey Ginsburg, Sonia Grego, Katelyn Sellgren, Holly Dressman, Jeffrey Glass, Brian Stoner, Kaivalya Powale, Tess Rogers, Vidhatri Subramanyam Bengaluru, Jacob Key, Jackson McNabb, Samarth Menta, Megan Richards, Claire Yin, Douglas Calahan, Eric Levitan. 2019.

Pulling Health Info from Poop (Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase 2020)

Developing the “Smart Toilet”: A Screening Tool for Health Monitoring (poster by Jacob Key, Jackson McNabb, Samarth Menta, Claire Yin)

This Team in the News

3 Ideas to Reduce Educational Disparities Post-Pandemic

Bass Connections Teams Share Research Highlights in a Virtual Showcase

Smart Toilet Saves Vital Health Data from Getting Flushed

Duke Researchers Working to Create ‘Smart Toilet’

Researchers' New 'Smart Toilet' Helps Pull Health Info from Poop

Fecal Matters: Learning about Health through Waste

See related team, Smart Toilet: A Disruptive Technology to Improve Health and Wellness (2020-2021).

Image: Katie Sellgren and colleagues, courtesy of Center for WaSH-AID