Wearable Bladder Monitor

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Medical

Incontinence is an extremely unpleasant medical condition that many men and women suffer from. Despite different etiologies, what sufferers go through are similar – they need to stop dribbling urine and need a time to void. Many current solutions such as adult diaper, pads, penile clamps, or catheters are used all day long or periodically throughout the day without knowing how full the bladder is. Therefore, sufferers need to make a lifestyle change – stocking up pads and adjusting their schedule around restrooms and guessing on accidents.

One of our beachhead segments after extensive interviews are those who had prostatectomy. Surviving from cancer, they do everything to go back to their normal life. They believe in Kegel exercise and comply 100% with clinicians, but they have no idea how well they are doing and how months are left to be continent again.

Just like diabetic patients have glucose meter, a bladder monitor for incontinence will enable sufferers understand their problem with objective assessment and help them to develop a personal continence management tactics.

Our solution is bladder analytics enabled by a wearable sensor. By using ultrasonic ranging and sound analysis, our sensor measures bladder wall distances and listens to its filling activity. And this is more accurate way of estimating bladder volume while keeping the device wearable. A sensor garment is worn as a underwear or as a waistband for secure and comfortable attachment.

Continuous monitoring of the bladder volume and activity over time is visualized on a smart device, and more in-depth metric such as urge-to-void time is available. This bladder intelligence provides basic information to a user for making a smart decision. For example, sufferers with urge incontinence can be notified to visit a restroom 30 minutes in advance. Also, prostatectomy patients can see a progress of improvement or determine how much of Kegel exercise is helping.

One thing I’d like to share is that woman-only products are flourishing in the incontinence device market, and we believe there should be smart products for men’s incontinence. EchoScope is a smart wearable device for men’s health.

Please feel free to reach out to us. www.linkedin.com/company/echoscope

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Daryl Hyun
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Daryl Hyun
    Bill Lee
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Daryl is inspired by:
    Incontinence is an overlooked medical condition that has detrimental impact on one's quality of life. I got passionate about this problem space as it's lacking smart solutions when I was researching at the University of Oxford as a biodesign fellow.
  • Software used for this entry:
    Solidworks
  • Patent status:
    pending