SoylentNews

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for FatPhil:

'Smart Toilet' Uses Artificial Intelligence to Monitor Bowel Health:

DURHAM, N.C. -- An artificial intelligence tool being developed by Duke scientists can be added to the standard toilet to help analyze patients' stool and give gastroenterologists the information they need to provide appropriate treatment for chronic issues such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

The work is being done by Duke University's Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease (WaSH-AID), and was presented Saturday at the virtual conference Digestive Disease Week 2021.

"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," said Deborah Fisher, MD, associate professor of medicine at Duke University and one of the lead authors on the study.

[...] The prototype has promising feasibility, but it is not yet available to the public. Researchers are developing additional features of the technology to include stool specimen sampling for biochemical marker analysis that will provide highly specific disease data to meet the needs of patients and gastroenterologists.

Original Submission