Helping patients and their families to cope with their ostomy

Ostomy-bags are prosthetic pouches that collect waste from your bladder, colon or ileum after a medical procedure. The operation is completely life changing: you lose complete control of how your body eliminates waste, and you have to measure the volume in the pouches, so medics can monitor your bowel function.
People Impacted
$ 1.6T
Potential Funding
I have this challenge
the problem
Nature and Context

Having an ostomy bag changes a person's life. Many patients who have one struggle to cope with the change, as it is their responsibility to maintain and change the bag, prevent leaks and overflow, and track output for medical records. This sort of constant maintenance can be overwhelming to people who are already struggling with a new lifestyle. Having a device that helps monitor and record output can help alleviate the burden patients face, and eliminate the dehumanizing aspect of having their schedule revolve around a bag.

Symptoms and Causes

Despite the fact that thousands of people now have a life saving ostomy-bag, not many technical advances have emerged to help patients with the life changing, clinical aspects of tracking their waste and maintaining their bags.

Ideas Description

Ostom-i is a Bluetooth device that monitors patients' ostomy-bags. Using a small element that could accurately measure pouch fullness, by sensing the arc in the bag’s external curvature, the alert clips onto the pouch and sweeps the bag every few seconds, sending measurements to a free app on a smartphone.

Input Needed From Contributing Editors
(click on any tag to contribute)