On-organ sensing for bowel monitoring - a bottom up approach

Our goal is to empower individuals with bowel conditions to have greater autonomy, activity and positive lifestyles, via discreet digital technologies. To do this, we propose using flexible, laparoscopically implantable sensors that attach to the external surface of the soft tissue of the bowel and track its motion as stool moves through the large intestine to the colon. We will sense this using strain measurements and acoustic changes. This data will be transmitted to a user’s receiver to provide early warnings of bowel movements (for incontinence or constipation) or the data can be interpreted further to identify patterns in their body’s behaviour.