Sonia Grego (Co-Founder at Coprata):
Oura Ring for sleep. WHOOP for activity. Now, Coprata Smart Toilet for stool
It’s something that we take for granted — until we can’t. How patients communicate about stool is anything but objective. What’s missed in translation is the ability to diagnose and treat GI conditions in a timely manner.
Therefore, it was with much intrigue that I began my conversation with Sonia Grego, PhD. She’s a professor of electrical and computer engineering from Duke University, the founding director of the Duke’s Smart Toilet Initiative. Her team worked for eight long years to develop a smart toilet. They spun off the innovation as the startup Coprata that has won competitions at Harvard. The Coprata toilet captures lots of data post flush, runs AI algorithms on the data and provides the analysis to both patients and doctors.
I came away super impressed with this at-home biosensor for GI tracking.
One, the market is showing us repeatedly that many new innovations in GI are coming from outside of the specialty. As a gastroenterologist, you must consider that as a missed opportunity.
To stay relevant, it’s so important to stay up-to-speed with what happens beyond the endoscopy room.
Two, increasingly new devices are preparing the ground for digital-first GI care. The smart toilet can go in many different directions from here. With scale, it can create so much ongoing data that it has the potential to change the trajectory of how much GI conditions are managed.
◘ How did Sonia Grego, an engineer/PhD start a smart toilet company?
◘ “There is a lot of data in stool and it is very difficult to get it”
◘ How does the smart toilet work?
◘ Does the user replace their existing toilet with a smart toilet?
◘ Does it operate on electric or battery power?
◘ What sensors are used? Does it have a camera?
◘ How does the collected data get transmitted?
◘ “We believe Coprata toilet will truly be an at-home biosensor for GI tracking”
◘ Can the smart toilet differentiate between multiple users?
◘ “We have developed an algorithm on 3,000 images”
◘ “Sensor-based analysis of stool will provide clinicians more accurate data”
◘ “Coprata toilet will empower clinicians to reduce uncertainty in prescription and management”
◘ Which disease conditions can be detected with a smart toilet?