Smart toilets for monitoring COVID-19 surges: passive diagnostics and public health

T Jessie Ge; Carmel T Chan; Brian J Lee; Joseph C Liao; Seung-Min Park

doi:10.1038/s41746-022-00582-0

Smart toilets for monitoring COVID-19 surges: passive diagnostics and public health

NPJ Digit Med. 2022 Mar 30;5(1):39. doi: 10.1038/s41746-022-00582-0.

Authors

T Jessie Ge¹, Carmel T Chan^{2

3}, Brian J Lee^{2

3

4}, Joseph C Liao¹, Seung-Min Park^{5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
³ Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Department of Urology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. sp293@stanford.edu.
⁶ Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. sp293@stanford.edu.
⁷ Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. sp293@stanford.edu.

Abstract

Continued COVID-19 surges have highlighted the need for widespread testing in addition to vaccination for disease containment. SARS-COV-2 RNA can be found in faecal matter, making human stool another potential source for COVID-19 diagnostics. In this commentary, we highlight potential strategies to use a smart toilet platform to passively monitor COVID-19 surges, enabling earlier detection of infected individuals and promoting public health.