Mobile Software for Assisting Individuals in Overcoming Urinary Incontinence

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a hidden epidemic of urinary incontinence (UI) in the United States. Thirteen to twenty million Americans suffer from UI, including 10% to 30% of women and 1.5% to 5% of men. Ten percent of women have symptomsso severe that they undergo surgery for UI or pelvic organ prolapsed. UI is most common among the elderly, with 10% of those over age 65 and 30% of those over age 85 reporting severe symptoms. Incidence is lower with men, but severe UI is common among menwith benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) or recovering from prostate surgery. Many interventions have been developed for overcoming UI, including pelvic floor exercises Kegels drugs dietary programs behavioral modifications, and surgical procedures. Howeverthe precise extent of a patient is often very hard to measure and too subtle for patients or physicians to see the effects. For this reason, even high-functioning patients often simply cannot tell their physicians whether their UI is getting better or worse, and physicians cannot tell whether prescribed interventions are having any effect. We propose to create and make widely available a free software tool, called iDry(R), that will provide the following benefits: physicians will be able to recommend that their patients use iDry to log and report their progress, thus giving the physician a powerful tool for measuring patient progress; patients will be able to clearly see progress that would otherwise be too subtle to notice (for example, a 10%/month reduction in urine loss), and researchers will be able to extract1and1analyze1information1from1iDry s1database. iDry will initially be implemented as an iPhone/iPad app, and will be made available as a free download from the Apple App Store 11Key functions available in the free version will be (a) easy logging of pad changes indicating time and urine content, and (b) easy viewing of graphs indicating progress in overcoming UI. Additional features will be available as paid upgrades, including a reminder feature for performing pelvic floor exercises, the ability to email results to themselves or their physicians, and advanced analysis tools. The data collected by iDry will be made available to UI researchers, with suitable safeguards in place to protect user privacy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is a hidden epidemic of urinary incontinence (UI) in the United States. Although many interventions have been developed for overcoming UI, the precise extent of a patient's UI is difficult to measure and often toosubtle for patients or physicians to see the effects. We propose to create and make widely available a free software tool, called iDry(R), that will provide the following benefits: physicians will be able to recommen that their patients use iDry to log andreport their progress, patients will be able to clearly see progress that would otherwise be too subtle to notice, and researchers will be able to extract and analyze information from iDry's database.