Nicholas Conn always knew a career as an electrical engineer was in his future. But he never could have predicted that his future would also involve toilet seats.
As chief technology officer of Heart Health Intelligence, Conn is working with his team to lower the hospital readmission rates of patients with congestive heart failure, as well as the staggering costs associated with readmission, through a toilet-seat based cardiovascular monitoring system.
The seats, which would be purchased from Heart Health Intelligence by hospitals and issued to heart failure patients after discharge, are equipped to measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart. It can monitor heart rate, blood pressure, blood volume, blood oxygenation levels, the patient’s weight, and stroke volume, which is the amount of blood pumped out of the heart at every beat. Algorithms designed by Conn analyze the data, and with further development, will alert advanced practice providers of a deteriorating condition. A report will be passed along to cardiologists who will then determine if intervention is necessary.
“Typically, within 30 days of hospital discharge, 25 percent of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted,” says Conn. “After 90 days of hospital discharge, 45 percent of patients are readmitted. And, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has started penalizing hospitals for readmitting patients for heart failure.”
Conn further explains that using the national average for readmission rates, the penalty alone for readmitting 150 patients is approximately $500,000 annually. The total cost of providing 150 patients with their own monitored toilet seats from HHI is $200,000. With that investment, he says, hospital systems will save more than double their initial investment within one year.
According to Conn, who earned three degrees from RIT—a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 2011 and 2013, respectively, and a doctoral degree in microsystems engineering in 2016—the system will pick up deteriorating conditions before the patients even realize they are symptomatic. And with the rapid data analysis, interventions can be as simple as a drug change or short office visit, instead of an admission to the hospital.
HHI, which joined RIT’s Venture Creations business incubator earlier this year, is now focused on moving the product forward. The team is heavily involved in writing grants for additional funding and networking, and human-subject testing and pre-clinical studies are well underway. Conn and his team are hoping that the seats will eventually be rolled out across the country for the nearly one-million new patients diagnosed with heart failure every year.
“I’m thrilled that I’ve been able to find a commercial application for what I love to do,” says Conn. “Through RIT, I’ve been able to take practical knowledge and tie it to theory, which has given me an unbelievable base for advanced projects like this one. I absolutely love the work I’m doing.”
Alongside Conn are founding members David Borkholder, chairman of HHI and professor of microsystems engineering at RIT; Karl Schwarz, M.D., chief medical officer of HHI; and Hye-Jin Nae and Adam Smith, associate professor of new media design at RIT, who provided creative direction and user-experience design.
We have not started the FDA process, this is something we plan on starting in the next year.