Ostom-i Alert ‘life-changer’ for bowel disease patients

The Ostom-i Alert device by 11health to help over 20,000 patients in the UK that undergo stoma surgery every year

The Ostom-I Alert will address conditions resulting in stoma surgery including: colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  

The Ostom-i Alert clips on to any type of ostomy bag and sends bluetooth alerts to an app on the users’ mobile device when the bag hits a set limit.

Patients can set individual limit alerts as to when they wish to be notified and can prevent both fluid and solid leakage.

Each device lasts up to three months and the app is available on iOS and Android.

Patients can also use the device to send output levels automatically to nurses and clinicians and allows hospitals to remotely monitor the patients through a shared Cloud-based portal.  

This allows potential dehydration and blockage problems to be diagnosed earlier by clinicians which could reduce both nursing time and hospital re-admission rates.

Patients and clinical staff can track and share real-time patient data about the volume of output over specific time periods.

Michael Seres, a long-term patient turned innovator who founded 11health, created the Ostom-i Alert device from his hospital bed, after he was the 11th person in the UK to undergo a small bowel transplant in 2011. 

Seres said: “Given the increasing pressures faced by healthcare, I couldn’t believe that there was no simple device to manage overflowing bags for patients, and save time for clinical teams, whilst providing real-time patient data to monitor outpatient progress.”

“This device, sends information to health professionals to simplify patient monitoring, and we estimate it can save 33% of current NHS stoma care costs.”

Georgios Vrakas, consultant transplant surgeon, small bowel transplantation, University Hospital Trust, said: “This product is inspirational. Something so simple in concept, yet so incredibly useful. There is no question that it will be life changing for millions of bowel disease sufferers.”

The firm recently secured Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the US and has been approved for patient use.