IoT and AI combine to detect urinary tract infections

According to the Alzheimer's Society, around a quarter of hospital beds in the UK are occupied by people affected by dementia, with UTIs one of the leading causes of hospitalisation. The World Health Organisation also estimates that the number of dementia sufferers worldwide is set to triple by 2050, significantly stretching healthcare resources. To help reduce the burden on hospitals, better care in the home will be required, including early detection of UTIs.

Developed by scientists from the University of Surrey's Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), the new system uses IoT devices such as environmental and activity monitoring sensors and vital body signal monitoring devices. As well as allowing clinicians to remotely monitor the health of patients, data from these devices is also plugged into an AI, where machine learning algorithms apply a technique called Non-negative Matrix Factorisation to find hidden clues of possible UTI cases. The research is published in the journal PLOS ONE.