AI Toilet Tool Offers Remote Patient Monitoring for Gastrointestinal Health

Researchers at Duke University are developing an artificial intelligence tool for toilets that would help providers improve care management for patients with gastrointestinal issues through remote patient monitoring. 

The tool, which can be installed in the pipes of a toilet and analyzes stool samples, has the potential to improve treatment of chronic gastrointestinal issues like inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome, according to a press release.

When a patient flushes the toilet, the mHealth platform photographs the stool as it moves through the pipes. That data is sent to a gastroenterologist, who can analyze the data for evidence of chronic issues.

A study conducted by Duke University researchers found that the platform had an 85.1 percent accuracy rate on stool form classification and a 76.3 percent accuracy rate on detection of gross blood.

“Typically, gastroenterologists have to rely on patient self-reported information about their stool to help determine the cause of their gastrointestinal health issues, which can be very unreliable,” Deborah Fisher, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Duke and one of the study’s lead authors, said in the press release.

“Patients often can’t remember what their stool looks like or how often they have a bowel movement, which is part of the standard monitoring process,” she said. “The smart toilet technology will allow us to gather the long-term information needed to make a more accurate and timely diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal problems.”

This remote patient monitoring platform has the potential to benefit both patients and healthcare providers. Patients won’t need to do anything out of the ordinary, and gastroenterologists won’t have to try and diagnose based on a patient’s description or recollection.

“An IBD flare-up could be diagnosed using the smart toilet and the patient’s response to treatment could be monitored with the technology,” Sonia Grego, PhD, a lead researcher on the study and founding director of the Duke Smart Toilet Lab, said in the release. “This could be especially useful for patients who live in long-term care facilities who may not be able to report their conditions and could help improve initial diagnosis of acute conditions,” 

The program makes use of something that nearly every American has at home. 

It’s not the first study to target the toilet. Back in 2019, researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology developed a  sensor-embedded toilet seat.

The toilet seat was designed to allow care providers to remotely monitor a patient’s weight, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation levels, and stroke volume. 

Similar to the AI tool for toilet pipes, RIT’s smart toilet seat presents the ability to catch patients’ symptoms early enough before they could lead to something more severe.

With gastroenterology appearing on Doximity’s list of specialties that are least engaged in telehealth, this artificial intelligence software, once available to the public, could change minds. Gastroenterology usually requires in-person and hands-on interaction but using remote monitoring in this way might prove to be even more beneficial.