Medical tech is making progress by leaps and bounds to find new ways of detecting diseases. Now, a ‘smart toilet’ can ‘read’ your stool to identify a range of disease markers. To make sure that the stool samples do not get mixed up with others, the device takes your anal print which is said to be unique.
The concept is the brainchild of Dr Sanjiv Sam Gambhir from Stanford University. “Our concept dates back well over 15 years,” said Gambhir, professor and chair of radiology. “When I’d bring it up, people would sort of laugh because it seemed like an interesting idea, but also a bit odd.” With a pilot study of 21 participants now completed, Gambhir and his team have made their vision of a precision health-focused smart toilet a reality, says a report by Stanford Medicine.
In this technology, different gadgets fixed in the bowl, analyses a person’s urine and stool and then stores them securely in the cloud. This data can be retrieved by a healthcare provider any time to understand health complaints raised by the user. This can be particularly helpful for persons who are genetically predisposed to prostrate cancer, kidney failure or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Gambhir said. “We have taken rigorous steps to ensure that all the information is de-identified when it’s sent to the cloud and that the information — when sent to health care providers — is protected under HIPAA,” he said, referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which restricts the disclosure of health care records.
The toilet has a built-in identification system that scans the user’s anus. “We know it seems weird, but as it turns out, your anal print is unique,” Gambhir said. The scans are used purely as a recognition system to match users to their specific data. No one, not you or your doctor, will see the scans, the researcher said.
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