Israeli human waste monitoring company OutSense has announced that it has raised $2.2 million in a Series A financing round from Peregrine Ventures. The funds will be used to complete the development and testing of an IoT technology which monitors health and helps prevent life threatening diseases by quickly and accurately analyzing human waste from within a standard toilet bowl.
The funds will enable OutSense to complete the final design of its toilet clip-on product and to expand medical trials in Israel and abroad for eventual marketing. In 2021, the company will seek marketing approval in the US from the FDA as well as from other leading regulatory bodies worldwide.
OutSense’s proprietary technology includes screening for hidden blood in stool, which is an established early sign of colorectal cancer (CRC). The technology also monitors dehydration, urinary tract infections, constipation, and diarrhea, which are major causes for hospitalization of the elderly.
Accuracy of detecting hidden blood has already been validated in a clinical study at Kfar Saba's Meir Medical Center and proven to be 90% accurate. OutSense is the first company ever to demonstrate that blood in stool can be effectively monitored in a standard toilet bowl, rather than having to send a physical sample to a lab.
OutSense plans initially focusing on remote monitoring of the elderly, a fast-growing market, which is receiving unprecedented attention due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
OutSense's IoT device easily attaches to a standard toilet bowl and the activation process is fully automatic. The device uses multi-spectral optical sensors, an illumination module, and an autonomous controller with a Wi-Fi receiver. The system captures the optical samples automatically, non-invasively, discreetly and without active user intervention. It delivers the results to the cloud, where the real time analysis is conducted using OutSense's proprietary computer vision algorithms and AI.
OutSense was founded in 2016 at the life sciences’ Incentive Incubator in Or Yehuda, which is owned and operated by Peregrine Ventures, in partnership with the Israel Innovation Authority.
OutSense CEO Yfat Scialom said, "Our technology allows users and patients to have their excretions scanned automatically and immediately receive actionable insights based on the underlying chemical and physical composition. The solution provides new ways for an early detection of potential severe gut problems, such as colorectal cancer, and for improving health and quality of care. Besides the medical impact, this solution also gives people new ways to improve their wellness, improve compliance to medications, and monitor diets and personal nutritional needs."
OutSense aims to create the world’s first and largest database of human waste. "This is especially crucial in colorectal cancer and other conditions which often go undiagnosed," Scialom observed.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 9, 2020
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