Smart toilet seat aims to lower hospital readmission rates of congestive heart failure patients
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A toilet-seat based cardiovascular monitoring system created by a team of Rochester Institute of Technology researchers aims to lower the hospital readmission rates of patients with congestive heart failure.
With 1 million new cases of congestive heart failure diagnosed each year, this revolutionary new bathroom product is making it easier for hospitals to monitor patients with the condition from the comfort of their own homes.
The toilet seats, which will be shepherded through the FDA clearance process by the researchers’ company Heart Health Intelligence, would be purchased by hospitals and issued to heart failure patients after discharge.
Nicholas Conn, a postdoctoral fellow at RIT and founder and CEO of Heart Health Intelligence, is part of the university team that developed the toilet seats.
“Typically, within 30 days of hospital discharge, 25 percent of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted,” said Conn. “After 90 days of hospital discharge, 45 percent of patients are readmitted. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is penalizing hospitals for readmitting patients for heart failure.”
Conn, the company’s chief executive officer, further explains that using the national average for readmission rates, the penalty alone for readmitting 150 patients is approximately $500,000 annually. The total cost of providing 150 patients with their own monitored toilet seats from HHI is $200,000. With that investment, he says, hospital systems will save more than double their initial investment within one year.
