Title:

Smart Toilet: A Window into the Future of Precision Health

Speaker:

Dr. Seung-Min Park

Affiliation:

Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

When:

Friday, August 8, 2025 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Love Building, Room 210

Host:

David Hu
hu@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

Precision Health represents a transformative shift in medicine, envisioning a future where continuous health monitoring throughout an individual’s lifetime enables early disease detection, personalized risk assessment, and preventive interventions. Despite significant technological advances, we face a fundamental challenge: creating solutions that are both clinically meaningful and seamlessly integrated into daily life. Few existing technologies have successfully bridged this gap between scientific capability and practical implementation. I will introduce the Precision Health Toilet, an innovation that fundamentally reimagines how we approach longitudinal health monitoring. This platform represents a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery - offering non-invasive, continuous health assessment through the analysis of human excreta. By combining advanced physical sensors with sophisticated computer vision and artificial intelligence, we've created a system that transforms routine biological processes into valuable health insights. Our discussion will explore the journey from concept to implementation, including the development of integrated assay modules, the challenges of converting complex biological data into actionable health information, and the creation of predictive models that could reshape preventive medicine. We'll also address crucial considerations around user identification, privacy, acceptance, and system limitations. Beyond the technology itself, we'll examine the broader implications for the future of healthcare - how such innovations could democratize access to continuous health monitoring and contribute to a more proactive, precise, and personalized approach to medicine. I will discuss critical societal considerations including ethics, privacy, data sovereignty, and equitable access, as we work toward a future where advanced health monitoring serves the needs of all communities while respecting individual rights and dignity.

Biography

Dr. Seung-min Park is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and, by courtesy, in the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He was previously an Instructor in the Department of Radiology and Urology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Park received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 2008. During his postdoctoral training in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, he also served as a visiting scholar at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, reflecting his deep commitment to Global Health. His current work lies at the intersection of nanobioengineering, disease diagnostics, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on advancing healthcare equity. In recognition of his innovative work, Dr. Park was awarded the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize in Public Health for inventing the Smart Healthcare Toilet, a pioneering platform for non-invasive, continuous health monitoring through human excreta.

Notes

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