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Nobody likes peeing in a cup. But when it comes to urine analysis, that’s the way it’s done.
But Israeli medical device startup Olive Diagnostics has come up with a way to use artificial intelligence to analyze what’s in your toilet bowl — so you don’t have to pee in a cup.
The Jerusalem-based company uses an optical sensor and AI-powered device to perform 100% passive real-time urine analysis. And it is extending its seed funding round to $7.3 million, after raising an additional $1.5 million from existing investors and private investors.
The investors in the pre-seed stage include Israeli HMO Maccabi Healthcare Services, Mayo Clinic, eHealth Ventures, Amgen Ventures, The Israel Innovation Authority, alongside private European and American private investors.
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Olive Diagnostics was founded in 2019 by CEO Guy Goldman and Corey Katz. The startup’s team includes experts in biochemistry, chemistry, physics, data analytics, optics, and business development for the health and wellness markets.
Olive Diagnostics’ flagship product, Olive KG, is the world’s first AI- and spectroscopy-based device, which performs high-quality analysis of important parameters in the patients’ urine in each urination, in a 100% passive way and without any need for additional accessories. (Yes, no pee cups).
Among other parameters, the device measures red blood cells, proteins, ketones, Nitrite, pH, alongside features such as volume, pressure, color and frequency of urination. No longer do you have to go to the doctor’s office to provide a urine sample, or send it away in the mail before you get results much later.
Olive KG is an IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) device and can be mounted on any toilet. It uses optics to detect the chemical components in the urine, and generates real-time personal data. That data is secured according to GDPR and HIPPA (privacy and health-related regulations) requirements, which are sent to the cloud and then to the treating doctor.
Olive Diagnostics has received the EU’s CE Marking for Olive KG as a medical device. Following the approval, Olive received first orders for the product from two European organizations.
“The milestone of receiving the CE Marking provides validation for our vision and technology and paves the way for us to enter the European market,” said Goldman, in a statement. “Olive KG is already installed at several assisted living facilities in Holland, and we believe that our device will transform medical care to one of non-invasive prevention, aiding patients and healthcare providers to detect diseases earlier, even before symptoms appear.”
Urinalysis is done today using chemical sticks (sort of like pregnancy test sticks but they detect molecules in urine). Using sticks is manually intensive and people don’t like to collect, dip the stick in the cup and then take a picture of the stick. For this reason, sticks aren’t used very often (just think when is the last time you used a stick).
Olive Diagnostics has developed an optical sensor allowing it to do the same molecular detection without doing anything but urinating in the toilet. This passive sensor allows people to have their urine tested five to seven times a day.
By having continuous monitoring the system can detect hundreds of diseases prior to the development of symptoms. So people who suffer from Kidney stones, UTIs. Dehydration, heart failure and many others can detect the presence of diseases before it flares up. Treating the root cause of diseases is much easier, cheaper and greatly improves a person’s quality of life as they don’t feel sick.
Finally, there are many aspects of urine that sticks don’t test such as the volume of urination, the color, pressure, or even the time of day, with our passive device these parameters are available giving doctors a huge amount of medical biomarkers used to alert and diagnose their patients.
Beyond the medical use, the device could also be useful to the wellness market, providing vital nutritional, dietary, workout performance and mental state information to give proactive suggestions for lifestyle improvements for health and well-being.
