UMass Chan using smart toilet seats to research chronic disease

PHOTO | Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School Paul Hartin Jr., clinical research coordinator at UMass Chan, with the Heart Seat

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By Isabel Tehan

Researchers at UMass Chan Medical School are launching a new study, using an unlikely method to gather data.

A smart toilet seat, equipped with digital sensors, will be used in a study called COMMODE-seat, which stands for correlating outcomes with mobile monitoring using digital sensors in a seat. The seat will be used to measure blood pressure and other heart-related variables as researchers determine if a smart toilet seat could be an effective health-monitoring device for patients with some chronic diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, hypertension, or heart failure, according to a Tuesday announcement from UMass Chan.

The toilet seat, made by Rochester, New York, biotechnology company Casana, is called the Heart Seat. It measures heart rate and oxygen saturation. Researchers at UMass Chan have launched the study, which they expect will enroll approximately 100 patients, to see if the seat provides sufficient data to avoid the need for an echocardiogram, which cannot be done at a patient’s home.

“If we can accurately predict which patients are going to require an emergency room visit or hospitalization, then we can go from a reactive state of health care to more of a proactive state of health care, and for example, pair those patients with programs like Hospital at Home or reach out for more evaluation,” Dr. Apurv Soni, assistant professor of medicine and co-director of the Program in Digital Medicine at UMass Chan, said in the announcement.

The Program in Digital Medicine will coordinate the study, funded by UMass Chan and Casana. Specifics of the cost of the research were not available.

Casana intends to launch future iterations of the smart seat, pending approval, with additional monitoring for other health factors such as blood pressure, according to a May 1 press release from the company.