Innovative toilet assistive device enabling people with reduced mobility to become independent
People with reduced mobility often suffer from bowel problems. Spinal cord injury (SCI), multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral palsy (CP), are some of the illnesses that lead to the loss of the ability to control the bowel reflex. The loss of bowel control often means that the evacuation requires extensive amounts of time and the assistance of health care providers or attendants. Moreover, bowel dysfunction is one of the most devastating sequelae of these patients, because it not only affects morbidity, but it also can severely disrupt a person's quality of life. 
IndGear has developed an innovative assistive, multifunctional device – Dignum - which enables for the first time, people with reduced mobility to use bathroom and perform bowel care and multiple hygienic tasks on their own, such as insertion of enema, cleaning, wiping and inspection for pressure ulcers. Dignum can be safely used by people with reduce or none sensation in the lower body since the device has an integrated module for visual inspection (screen, camera, and lights) which minimizes risks of injuries to the perineum and anal region.
The SME Phase 1 project will be crucial for the maturation of the business plan, including the analysis of reimbursement schemes and regulatory work and the development of a business model compatible with geographical market expansion and growth. In the SME Phase 2 Project we aim to clearly demonstrate and validate the benefits of our device through large scale demonstrations – crucial for a wide penetration in this sector.
Overall, this project opens not only an important economic opportunity for IndGear - expecting over €17.1 million revenues, 5 years post-project - but will ultimately lead to contributing significantly to improve quality of life of end-users as well as important cost savings for the society.