SBIR Phase II: Internet-Connected Urinalysis System for Passive Health Monitoring

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II (SBIR) project is to help remote monitoring of patients with chronic liver disease to reduce unnecessary procedures, improve quality of care, and lower costs. This project will advance a novel internet-of-things (IoT) smart-toilet for passive urine testing. This project will help provide a passive way to monitor the 4.5 million liver disease patients in the United States, an estimated market valued at $860 million. The proposed solution will enable quality care to be delivered at home and in remote locations, improving treatment for traditionally underserved populations. It can potentially be used for other medical conditions as well. This SBIR Phase II project will develop a novel urinalysis system. The systems engineering include integration of: mechanical and electrical engineering solutions to power passive, automated mechatronics and sensor-testing equipment, biomedical engineering for the development of biosensors, signal analysis to measure physiological urinary biomarkers, software engineering related to the aspects of firmware and internet-connected data processing, and data science for algorithm development informed by longitudinal health data. The technical tasks include: hardware design for manufacturing and assembly compatibility; development of architecture for database management, device registration, over-the-air (OTA) updates, and error handling; and front-end development for both web and mobile data integration and visualization. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.