Automatic toilet diaper

[superabsorbantpolymer]

I got an unsolicited marketing email from an incontinence device salesman. Probably my email was sold on front a medical site I purchased from previously. 

The product they were marketing is a diaper/toilet hybrid system. The user wears a diaper with a drain and bidet cleaner. It's attached via a hose to a receptacle which sterilizes and deodorizes the waste and contains a reservoir for the bidet, which automatically cleans the user after they soil themselves. 

It's designed for bed ridden patients and is probably very expensive but I'd love to try it. Imagine an ambulatory version which automatically follows you around so you can relieve yourself and he cleaned automatically anywhere you go.

 

 

[Little Sherri]

That thing looks horrendous to wear, like having a bicycle seat shop-vac attachment strapped to you at all times. The garments, the clunky device, the tubing... I think I would lean towards medical assistance in dying before being conjoined to that thing 24/7. I see no way that it isn't going to be prone to seal leaks, unless it's perfectly fitted, and the patient is totally immobilized. You're going to end up with the bidet water, and the waste, seeping into the sheets, at least some of the time. Plus, it probably sounds like a central vacuum system when it's running, and, it would be blowing multiple CFM of air into the room, granted, through a charcoal filter, but those are far from perfect odor scrubbers - I have a charcoal filter in my car's cabin filtration system, and when I drive past a dead skunk, I still get a whiff. It might be taken down a notch, but, it's there. 

If that's the future of patient care, then I'm going to wear my diapers independently for as long as I can, and then opt for the needle...

[absorbance irrigator]

So this device actually works?
It seems to me an extremely expensive over engineered solution, that will barely solve a single problem better thanregular care would.
Still needs changing, cleaning, etc.

[ValentinesStuff]

I think they were trying to get a NASA contract for a space toilet/diaper/waste disposal system and got laughed out of the room. Then needed to recover some R&D money. Given the cleaning process, you would need a minimum of two units. 

[oznl]

I guess whether or not this product is likely to work pivots on your definition of the product’s design objective.

If it was to replace catheters or adult diapers, then like @Little Sherri, I can’t see how it could reliably seal.  I suppose a lossy partial vacuum might help but I can’t see that being great for skin integrity (or even more disturbingly, prolapse).  I found the user constraint of +/- 30 degrees from (subject to the “diaper module” being re-calibrated to absolute horizontal of course) to be frankly hilarious: one of the funniest examples of attempting to document one’s way out of an egregious design shortcoming I’ve ever seen.  Should we install a tilt sensor in Aunty Doris?

If the design objective was to swiftly give a patient multiple pressure injuries in awkward areas it’s a winner.

If the design objective was to give care staff the opportunity to practice their patient transfer skills more frequently in order to change bedding, it’s still a winner.

If the design objective was to bind an institution to an endless treadmill of proprietary (and doubtless expensive) consumables, it’s an Olympic champion.

[superabsorbantpolymer]

The replies in this thread have given me some very hearty belly laughs. I thought it was a bit silly when I shared it but now I see just how poorly thought through this device is. It's a perfect example of an over engineered yet poorly performing solution to a problem.