Any good nurse can diagnose a patient with C-Diff the moment they walk in the room, but now we have a machine to do it for us.
A pioneering new device that could help over four billion adults and children who suffer from infectious diarrhoea in the developing world and reduce outbreaks of diseases such as clostridium difficile (C.Diff) in UK hospital wards is the winner of this year’s University of Bristol’s New Enterprise Competition.
Dr Chris Probert, Consultant and Reader in Gastroenterology at Bristol University and Professor Norman Ratcliffe at the University of the West of England, developed Odor-Reader, a device able to rapidly diagnose gastrointestinal disease by ‘reading’ the odour of biological fluids including stool and urine.
Delays in diagnosing gastrointestinal diseases can lead to patients being ill for longer, some may die, many will cost more to treat along with infections spreading to other people. In England and Wales there are over 50,000 cases of C.Diff (the latest ‘superbug’) each year. The infection prolongs hospitalisation and is associated with high morbidity and mortality as well as costing the NHS around £60 million annually.
The first prize of £15,000 was awarded to the researchers at the University’s annual enterprise dinner held tonight.
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