Medline’s new FitRight CONNECT Wetness Sensing System uses Wi-Fi and sensor technology to track incontinence episodes — and to gather data on how long patients remain in wet briefs.

In a Sept. 16 news announcement, the Northfield, Illinois, manufacturer introduced the FitRight CONNECT system, which comprises special incontinence briefs and a sensor pod “to provide data that takes the guesswork out of incontinence management and helps skilled nursing home residents stay drier longer.”

Medline added that while studies show that up to 83.7% of nursing home residents experience incontinence, incontinence briefs “are often used incorrectly due to a lack of understanding of regular urinary patterns among residents. Depending on a caregiver’s availability, residents may spend hours in a wet brief, increasing the risk of developing dermatitis or incontinence-associated dermatitis.”

Incontinence and moisture have also been linked to heightened risk of pressure injuries.

Medline’s new system reports in real time on patients’ voiding patterns, “including the time each wetness event occurred, the amount of time residents spent in each brief, and the amount of time before a clean brief was applied,” the announcement said. “This data helps our customers identify the real change rate per resident, potential toileting times, caregiver workflow patterns, and the need for changes in residents’ plan of care. Utilizing the dashboard data has proven to be instrumental in conversing with family members about the incontinence care provided for their loved ones.”

A trial at Bayley Senior Care, a long-term care facility in Ohio, showed the new system resulted in residents spending less time in wet briefs, while also reducing the time that nurses spent unnecessarily changing dry residents into new briefs.

“We are excited to introduce this new technology to the market that makes a caregiver’s day easier while providing dignity and comfort to a resident,” said Medline’s Michelle Christiansen, senior director of clinical solutions. “Medline is the largest adult incontinence products provider in the U.S., and it was important for us to go beyond providing products and create new technology that will help address the challenges of everyday tasks related to incontinence care.”