Instant urine tests can examine mental and physical health among the old and young
Olive Diagnostics has developed a device that can measure molecules in your urine and track health via an app.
Olive Diagnostics, which last year received a $7.3 million Seed round for its AI-powered real-time urine analysis device, has developed its flagship Olive KG 4.5 IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) device to help families and care home facilities care for elderly and sick patients through its non-invasive spectroscopy-based toilet lid. By placing it around the toilet bowl, the KG 4.5 performs urine analysis that can measure mental and physical health in a matter of seconds.
Founder and CEO Guy Goldman spoke to CTech about the inspiration for the device he hopes will be on every toilet around the world. Motivated by caring for his mother while she was sick (the KG was named after her, Karen Goldman), he hopes to see the technology implemented in homes, care facilities, and hotels to help monitor the elderly and also help younger users track their mental health.
“A hotel might focus on wellness and look to give its customers wellness assistance, nutrition, advice on what you should eat, or if you're drinking too much,” he told CTech. “One of the things that's amazing about urine is that there is something called Cortisol. Cortisol tells you about mental health.”
Currently, the KG 4.5 offers real time analysis on aspects such as hydration, vitamin balance, nutritional coaching, sleep patterns, possible infection, stress levels, and physiological creatinine levels and exhaustion.
Unlike feaces, which examines the health of intestines, liver, and overall digestive systems, urine offers real time health analysis of the kidneys and the location of the two adrenal glands that produce the Cortisol hormone. It also monitors over time how the kidneys respond to infection or disease, thereby offering insights into the physical health of users, too.
“It will take time, but we will learn that and we will know what urine looks like when you have an infection - because it is a regulator,” he explained. “If you understand how it is regulating, then you can understand everything happening in your body.”
Goldman recently presented the company at the Israeli regional finals of the Startup World Cup hosted by Pegasus Tech Ventures and Tech It Forward - taking the crown and representing Startup Nation in San Francisco later this year. Today, Olive Diagnostics has placed a pause on the orders of its product due to incredible high demand: roughly 30,000 orders of toilet lids are currently planned as the company hopes to start shipping them out later this year in time for the Final in November.
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One of the appeals of the KG 4.5 device is its non-invasive nature; the toilet lid is replaced after users purchase it with a one-off payment of $450 (the same price the company spends to develop it, although they plan to eventually give it away for free). Users then sign up to a monthly subscription fee of $20 for insights, records, and recommendations based on urine samples. The device connects via an app which can be synced to other devices via Bluetooth, which means users can take their insights and track their urine on several devices in other locations if they travel. Each toilet is capable of distinguishing between at least 50 different users, and members of the elderly community do not need to change their habits to benefit from its services if installed in care facilities.
The company has received funding from the Israel Innovation Authority to expand its research into faeces, and it was accepted into Google’s “Google For Startups” program. It is currently developing its “KG-Clip” product, which will clip onto existing toilet seats and ultimately render the KG 4.5 obsolete.
Currently, Olive Diagnostics has three primary customers: assisted living facilities, homecare providers, and telemedicine platform operators. Those customers are the ones who receive the data to their backend systems and they create their own rules on how that data is interpreted and managed. The company itself is compliant with all the necessary GDPR regulations to ensure user data is not exploited.
Before representing Israel in the Startup World Cup Final, the company has three main goals: tweak the product so it performs perfectly for prolonged use; begin a clinical trial with Israel’s Assuta Hospital in Ashdod to track protein levels in urine to help identify more diseases; and establish a manageable mould for the mass-manufacturing of its KG 4.5 product to ship them out to users.
Israel has an impressive track record at the Startup World Cup, with Israeli biotech company Matricelf ranking third place globally (and winning Calcalist’s Startup+ Competition in 2020). Goldman and the Olive Diagnostics team is feeling the pressure to match that this year, yet feel confident. “I’m winning this,” he concluded. “I’m winning this competition. I am going to do it this time. I’m going to practice and get really ready for this.”
