The Convergence of Smart Toilets and Medical Science

“The flush toilet, more than any single invention, has 'civilized' us in a way that religion and law could never accomplish.”- Thomas Lynch. We all have to go; regardless of whether or not we have the latest lavatory. We live in a world where inventions and technology appear to be ahead of most of us. Smart phones and smart television are now the normal; now technology has brought on the world stage smart toilets. Who would have thought that toilets could be prefixed by the term smart? Smart toilets have been around for quite some time. Many of us have seen and have used them in public places and in some homes. The global smart toilet market size is expected to reach USD 12.7 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. These smart toilets are outfitted with sensors that activate the flushing mechanism. The sensors are able to detect the distance of your body and flushes automatically. Smart toilets are intelligent toilet sanitary wares that automatically open up and flush. These smart toilet commodes comprise multiple cutting-edge sensing technologies that allow the users to personalize every detail from warm-water cleansing, UV sanitization, heated seat, and hands-free seat closing to automatic flush, ambient lighting, and air freshening. In-addition, smart toilets comprise hardware components such as water jets, bottom washers, blow dryers, and artificial flush sounds to mask noises. Some intelligent toilets are equipped with a built-in smart virtual assistant that lets users create an ideal environment with only the voice. Moreover, these toilets can also be connected to mobile apps giving users the freedom to set their personal preferences, such as preferred temperature, cleansing pressure, and ambiance for each person in a household. Additionally, in some instances one can wave one’s hand in front of the toilet to get it to flush. Toilets have indeed come a far way and the medical community has bought into using smart toilets to assist in diagnosis of certain illnesses. This functional technology driven purpose of smart toilets is especially important during this time of COVID-19. Diagnostic Tool Smart toilets are going much further as they are being designed to detect signs of disease. This infusion of technology and medical science is primarily being done in developed societies such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Australia, Singapore,France and Japan. Europe accounts for the dominating share in the global smart toilet market and is expected to retain its leading position throughout the predicted period. In 2018, the region acquiring a 35.0% market share. It is estimated that factors such as urbanization, increase in the construction industry, escalating consumer spending on maintaining bathroom hygiene and increasing installments of smart toilets propel the smart (intelligent) toilet market. A considerable number of populations in the United Kingdom and Germany prefer touch-less intelligent toilet seat. A United States based company Casana has entered the lavatory market targeting seniors with their brand of smart toilets. As we age, the probability increases that we will require medical care and intervention. Ageing at times negatively impacts our memories making it challenging for us to remember to record our weight or blood pressure, blood glucose or oxygen levels on a daily basis. With a Casana toilet seat, there are no wires, no charging stations, and no forgetting to record one’s vital health statistics. Forbes magazine in their article stated that designing a smart toilet has its advantages and disadvantages. Toilet seats have a lot of surface area, which means there is less need for expensive miniaturization, such as what is required for sensors found in an iPhone. The article continued the buttocks aren’t the easiest part of the anatomy to read medical measurements from the background noise, details of which have been published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research mHealth and uHealth. Those two papers demonstrated this prototype toilet seat could measure blood pressure, as well as stroke volume and blood oxygenation with clinical grade accuracy consistent with an echocardiogram, and ultrasound. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) one person dies every 36 seconds from cardiovascular disease in the United States, therefore knowing the state of one’s heart is critical in not becoming a statistics. Undoubtedly, we all have to use the “loo” at various points throughout the day and it would be quite easy to capture various medical measurement which then could be sent to our medical provider to assist in our healthcare. However, a disadvantage to having smart toilets take our vital health statistics is the likelihood that some businesses which specialize in diagnostic tests such as electrocardiogram might see a downturn in their business. The Forbes article mentioned that Casana’s first target is heart failure, which affects more than 6.2 million Americans. The article added that one key metric here is “stroke volume”—the amount of blood that a person’s heart pumps in each beat. “Right now, the most common way to measure this is via an echocardiogram, which must be performed in a physician’s office. Casana’s goal is for doctors to be able to prescribe the toilet seat, which can monitor stroke volume at home. Additionally, by keeping an eye on this data, doctors will be able to intervene long before symptoms get bad enough to merit a hospital visit. “That's really the secret sauce to the underlying database,” says the executive chairman of Casana. There will also be safeguards in place for when users may have guests visiting. According to the Chief Executive Officer Austin Chord, “it turns out your butt, when paired with weight, posture, heart rhythm and other measurements, is like a unique identifier, meaning the toilet seat would sense the difference between users and dump the data. In the end, the hope is the data collected from the toilet seat will ultimately be able to help inform clinical-decision making, like whether to adjust a patient’s medication depending on the vital measurements being collected in real-time. Smart toilets also have the ability to extract odours It is clear that the butt will be responsible in transforming the medical field for years to come. Someone years ago commented "we are not out buttocks", however, the invention of the smart toilet should cause us to rethink this pronouncement. Our buttocks know all there is to know about ourselves. Perhaps the next you renovate your bathroom you can consider installing a smart toilet. Smart toilets are the way of the future not only because of the ease of use but because of the varied medical possibilities associated with this invention. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo ©