Animal olfactory detection of disease as control for health metrics collected by medical toilet

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10455817-B2
Application number	US-201615284817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2016
Priority date	Oct 4, 2016
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

We disclose a medical toilet that comprises one or more medical devices and a control for the metrics they collect. The medical devices may be used to collect metrics relevant to a user's health status. The medical toilet further comprises a conduit through which volatile organic compounds travel from the toilet bowl to the environment outside the toilet. An animal trained to identify the scent of bodily waste collected from a user that is afflicted with a disease perceives the scent of the user's bodily waste traveling through the conduit and performs a defined act upon perceiving the disease scent. The metric collected by the medical device(s) may be used to diagnose the same disease as that which the animal is trained to identify. The diagnosis provided by the animal by way of the conduit acts as a control for the metric collected by the medical device.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of providing a control for a first health metric collected by a medical toilet for use in diagnosing a disease in a user comprising the steps of:
providing a medical toilet, the toilet comprising:
a toilet bowl;
a toilet seat;
a medical device which measures a first health metric, wherein the first health metric is an indicator of the disease in a user;
a scent dispenser, the scent dispenser comprising:
an opening within a side of the toilet;
wherein the opening is defined by a frame, the frame comprising a first side in communication with an environment outside the toilet bowl and a second side in communication with an environment inside the toilet bowl;
wherein the opening connects the environment inside the toilet bowl with the environment outside the toilet bowl; and
wherein the opening defines a conduit to transfer volatile organic compounds from the toilet bowl to the environment outside the toilet;

providing an animal, wherein the animal is trained to:
smell the air being emitted from the scent dispenser;
identify a scent that is associated with the disease; and
perform a defined act when the animal perceives scent associated with the disease; and

depositing one or more types of bodily waste from the user into the medical toilet, wherein the bodily waste emits one or more volatile organic compound;
collecting the first health metric using the medical device of the medical toilet;
placing the animal proximate to the scent dispenser; and
recording the behavior of the animal which comprises either performance or nonperformance of the defined act;
wherein the first health metric measured by the medical device and the scent identified by the animal are indicators of the same disease;
wherein the medical device collects a first health metric by measuring a property of a different physiological function of the disease than the bodily waste that the animal and scent dispenser analyses;
wherein the medical device provides a quantitative assessment of the disease and the animal provides a control by providing a qualitative assessment of the disease.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bodily waste comprises one or more of the following: urine, feces, vomit, sputum, blood, seminal fluid, tears, nasal mucus, gastrointestinal tract mucus, urogenital tract mucus, saliva, exhaled breath, or sweat.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising collection of a follow-up health metric, wherein the follow-up health metric measures an indicator of the disease.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the follow-up health metric is performed when the first health metric and the behavior of the animal indicate conflicting diagnosis of the disease in the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a follow-up health metric comprises a measurement of an analyte present in or emitted from the one or more types of bodily waste.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disease is selected from one or more of the following:
colon adenoma, colon carcinoma, colon adenocarcinoma, colorectal adenoma, colorectal carcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, bladder carcinoma, bladder adenocarcinoma, liver adenoma, liver carcinoma, liver adenocarcinoma, esophageal adenoma, esophageal carcinoma, esophageal adenocarcinoma, stomach adenoma, stomach carcinoma, stomach adenocarcinoma, pancreatic adenoma, pancreatic carcinoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, lung cancer, mouth cancer, throat cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, urinary tract infection, gastric ulcer, diabetes, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, impending seizure, and impending migraine.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disease consists of cancer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the defined action is selected from one or more of the following:
emitting a sound, tail wagging, assuming a sitting position, assuming supine position, pointing, tapping the scent dispenser with the animal's nose, tapping the scent dispenser with the animal's paw, tapping a human with the insect's or rodent's nose, tapping a human with the animal's paw, moving in circles, raising a proboscis, and vibrating.

9. A method of diagnosing a disease in a user, wherein the disease is associated with a disease process that causes the user to excrete bodily waste comprising at least one volatile organic compound that is not detectable by smell in bodily waste collected from a user not afflicted with the disease, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a medical toilet, the medical toilet comprising:
a toilet bowl, the toilet bowl housing a volume of toilet water;
a toilet seat;
a medical device, wherein the medical device collects a first health metric to identify the presence of a disease in a user;
a scent dispenser, the scent dispenser comprising:
an opening within a side of the medical toilet;
wherein the opening is defined by a frame, the frame comprising a first side in communication with an environment outside the toilet bowl and a second side in communication with an environment inside the toilet bowl;
wherein the opening connects the environment inside the toilet bowl with the environment outside the toilet bowl; and
wherein the opening defines a conduit to transfer volatile organic compounds from the environment inside toilet bowl to the environment outside the toilet;

providing an insect or rodent, wherein the insect or the rodent is trained to:
identify a scent that is associated with the disease; and
perform a defined act when the insect or the rodent perceives the scent associated with the disease;

depositing one or more types of bodily waste from the user into the medical toilet, wherein the bodily waste emits one or more volatile organic compounds;
collecting the first health metric using the medical toilet;
placing the insect or the rodent proximate to the scent dispenser; and
recording the behavior of the insect or the rodent which comprises either performance or nonperformance of the defined act;
wherein the first health metric measured by the medical device and the scent identified by the animal are indicators of the same disease;
wherein the medical device collects a first health metric by measuring a property of a different physiological function of the disease than the bodily waste that the animal and scent dispenser analyses;
wherein the medical device provides a quantitative assessment of the disease and the animal provides a control by providing a qualitative assessment of the disease.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the bodily waste comprises one or more of the following: urine, feces, vomit, sputum, blood, seminal fluid, tears, nasal mucus, gastrointestinal tract mucus, urogenital tract mucus, saliva, exhaled breath, or sweat.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising collection of a follow-up health metric, wherein the follow-up health metric measures an indicator of the disease.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the follow-up health metric is performed when the first health metric and the behavior of the animal indicate a conflicting diagnosis of the disease in the user.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein a follow-up health metric comprises the measurement of an analyte present in or emitted from the one or more types of bodily waste.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the disease is selected from one or more of the following:
colon adenoma, colon carcinoma, colon adenocarcinoma, colorectal adenoma, colorectal carcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, bladder carcinoma, bladder adenocarcinoma, liver adenoma, liver carcinoma, liver adenocarcinoma, esophageal adenoma, esophageal carcinoma, esophageal adenocarcinoma, stomach adeno

Assignees

• Hall David R
• Fox Joe
• Pearman Terrece
• Hall Labs Llc

Inventors

• Hall David R
• Fox Joe
• Pearman Terrece

Classifications

• A61B10/0064

  for taking sweat or sebum samples (measuring sweat production A61B5/4266) · CPC title

• A61B5/150045

  for blood from vagina, placenta, colon or mouth · CPC title

• A01K29/005 Primary

  Monitoring or measuring activity · CPC title

• A61B10/0038

  Devices for taking faeces samples; Faecal examination devices (anal receptacles A61F5/451) · CPC title

• A61B10/0051

  for taking saliva or sputum samples (devices for receiving spittle A61J9/00) · CPC title