We love hearing great news about medical innovations on the horizon. With the COVID-19 pandemic all around us, telemedicine is an absolute must. Many of us are afraid to go to the doctor’s office. That’s especially true for people who have underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk for COVID-19. However, we all still need medical care. Improvements in telemedicine are needed now, and in the future, to allow us to get health care during this pandemic and when there are other reasons we can’t make it to the doctors.

Even when there isn’t a pandemic, it can be hard to get to see a doctor. And sometimes you don’t realize you need to go to a doctor’s office. That’s why we really like the news we are sharing today. This new technology helps you when you might not realize you need help.

We were pleased to hear about the company Heart Health Intelligence receiving $2.2 million to help them manufacture the Heart Seat. The Heart Seat is a toilet seat that monitors heart health. It monitors nine clinical-grade metrics, including a person’s blood pressure, ECG, blood oxygenation and heart rate. The seat has been tested by 300 subjects and been studied by two peer-reviewed journals.

“We are going to make a tangible difference in the lives of patients and healthcare providers,” said Dr. Nicholas Conn, Heart Health Intelligence CEO. “The strong partnerships we are forming now continue to add to our momentum and I’m incredibly excited for all the good that our technology has the potential do.”

It can be installed in a person’s home and then sends information to the person’s doctor, family or caregivers or sends out an emergency alert. That could help someone continue to live alone if their health puts them into a precarious position. The new money will help the company get through the FDA process and go into manufacturing.

“Ultimately,” said Dr. Khan Siddiqui, Heart Health Intelligence’s Independent Board Member, “this advancement for in-home technology will provide patients and their clinicians with information previously unavailable at an unprecedented scale. No other clinical-grade technology so seamlessly integrates into everyday life.”

A recent study showed that telemonitoring like this could reduce the number of hospitalization days by 65 percent for heart failure patients. This toilet seat could give doctors information early and help them stop problems before they progress to a point where a person would notice a symptom.

Hearing that a toilet seat could be the future of heart health medicine is crazy! It’s nothing like what the Jetsons promised us. But we will take better heart health and revolutionary medicine in our bathroom over a flying car any day of the week!