The present invention provides a portable handheld medical screening device designed to facilitate health, medical research, and health-security screening measures at hospitals, emergency rooms, medical facilities, offices, meeting rooms, sports training facilities, health clubs, restaurants, small shops and for service providers, etc., i.e., places associated with healthcare and interactions between persons unknown to each other in settings where disease, public health, research data collection, disease contagion, and/or disease detection and/or monitoring are a concern. The invention provides several formats of self-contained devices with flexible attachment that collects ambient emissions, especially volatile compounds, produced by a subject (medical patient or one or more persons interacting with each other). In a clinical setting, the device monitors gas compounds produced by the subject, analyzes the monitored gases to determine patterns of emitted gases, compares these patterns to libraries of patterns associated with a disease or condition, and reports the associations.

A method is disclosed comprising providing a biological sample on a swab, directing a spray of charged droplets onto a surface of the swab in order to generate a plurality of analyte ions, and analyzing the analyte ions.

The various embodiments herein provide a device for analysing a rectum gas discharge. The device comprises a central bag, a peripheral bag, and an electronic unit. The central bag comprises a gas inlet and a gas outlet on directionally opposite ends of a central bag surface. The peripheral bag is housed in a container and radially encapsulates the central bag. The electronic unit comprises a pressure sensor and a connector for further connecting a monitoring unit. The pressure sensor is attached over a surface of the peripheral bag. The central bag is attached to an anal canal of a patient and expands on ingestion of discharged rectal gas from the anal canal. The peripheral bag expands with the central bag resulting in activation of the pressure sensor to measure a gas collected in the central bag.

An oral care implement may be embodied as an oral care device for placement in the oral cavity. The oral care device may include a support component, a piezoelectric component, and a therapeutic element. The support component is configured for placement between one or more maxillary teeth and one or more mandibular teeth. The piezoelectric element is configured to generate an electrical current from relative movement of the maxillary teeth and the mandibular teeth. The therapeutic element is electrically connected to the piezoelectric component and is configured to release a therapeutic composition into the oral cavity at least in part in response to receiving the electrical signal.

A method of analysis using mass and/or ion mobility spectrometry or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed comprising: using a first device to generate aerosol, smoke or vapour from one or more regions of a first target of biological material; and mass and/or ion mobility analysing and/or ion mobility analysing said aerosol, smoke, or vapour, or ions derived therefrom so as to obtain first spectrometric data. The method may use an ambient ionisation method.

The present invention is directed to a toilet that includes a slanted fill tube with an optical proximity sensor positioned on or within the inner surface of the fill tube. The optical proximity sensor includes an incoherent light source and a photodiode. The optical proximity sensor as disclosed herein detects small changes in volumes added to a toilet bowl. Consequently, small volumes of excrement that are deposited in the toilet bowl by a user may be detected with greater accuracy. In some embodiments, information about the volume of urine or feces deposited into the toilet bowl is recorded and calculated by a processor. Other sensors, including a toilet bowl water level sensor and a gas sensor may collect data in combination with the optical proximity sensor to provide more complete information about the user's health.

Transdermally emitted gasses are detected by applying a dermal sampling strip to the skin of a biological subject, capturing the gasses in a vapor space in the dermal sampling strip, and analyzing for at least one such gas captured in the vapor space of the dermal sampling strip. Analysis is preferably performed using an electrocatalytic cell, which can be mounted on the dermal sampling strip and form a wall of the vapor space.

Systems and methods facilitate sensing and tallying defecation events of subjects, such as participants in clinical trials for treatments for treating digestive diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and chronic constipation. Systems and methods may also be used by individual patients for sensing and tallying defecation events, and resulting data may be reviewed by a healthcare provider when evaluating patient gastrointestinal health and/or treatments.

A method of analysis using mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry is disclosed comprising: (a) using a first device to generate smoke, aerosol or vapour from a target in vitro or ex vivo cell population; (b) mass analysing and/or ion mobility analysing said smoke, aerosol or vapour, or ions derived therefrom, in order to obtain spectrometric data; and (c) analysing said spectrometric data in order to identify and/or characterise said target cell population or one or more cells and/or compounds present in said target cell population.

An apparatus is disclosed comprising a first device for generating aerosol, smoke or vapour from one or more regions of a target, an inlet conduit to an ion analyser or mass spectrometer, the inlet conduit having an inlet through which the aerosol, smoke or vapour passes, and a Venturi pump arrangement arranged and adapted to direct the aerosol, smoke or vapour towards the inlet.