Get a Hold of That Urine with the AssureFlow

I known this is not a subject most people want to talk about, but you never know when the urinary problems will start affecting your life. For this purpose, Ms Angelene Ozolins, an Australian UTS student, has come up with an extremely useful device that will bring your life back to normal and will probably save you from the embarrassment.

The AssureFlow is designed to support, or act on behalf of the natural function of the bladder and lower urinary tract. The product's goal is to store and to allow the controlled expulsion of urine by the user and it targets people with urinary incontinence, a condition which affects over 200 million people worldwide.

This prototype consists of two components: one internal valve and one external handheld actuator. And now for the more scary part: the installation procedure. The internal valve is inserted into the urethra at the bladder neck (ouch!) and through the shape memory properties of Nitinol, the valve is able to open and close by means of an external handheld actuator.

You're probably wondering what Nitinol is. I know I am. Well, apparently it is a shape memory metal where a reversible phase transformation exists between the two states of martensite and austenite that is thermally or stress induced.

The internal valve is made of three co-centric stent-like tubes. There are two inner tubes, made from this Nitinol, which have different temperatures and stress thresholds. The outer tube when heated to the body's temperature turns rigid to austenite. This tube compresses the inner tube (which is still in its soft martensite state), and the silicone to form a watertight seal. Therefore, the tube is able to be forced open and allow urine to pass.

As the product descriptions says, when the heat from the external actuator is removed, the inner tube reverts back to its soft martensite state, and the outer tube becomes rigid austenite at the body's temperature, closing the valve once again.

Of course, this wouldn't be possible without the external actuator, which activates the device when the user presses the two outer side buttons. This clever measure will prevent any erroneous release. Once open, the user can program the device or activate the valve. The actuator features a recharging port, USB port and memory to store information from the patient's voiding patterns.

The AssureFlow could really be an excellent medical product, but I do have one tiny issue. What happens if you have kids or some really good friends who decide to play a trick on you and get a hold of the actuator. There should be some security measures, a password or something, to prevent any "accidental" triggering.

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