An intelligent diaper for everyday use, which alerts  care staff when it needs to be changed, is now being introduced by Danish manufacturing company Abena
in cooperation with Silicon Valley-based MediSens Wireless. In most nursing homes, between 40-60% of residents suffer from urinary incontinence—involuntary urine leakage. This has huge impact for residents, both physically and mentally, and requires a significant amount of resources from the care institution.

The new new intelligent diaper, Abena Nova, supports caregivers in nursing homes and special needs facilities to provide better and more personalized care to people with urinary incontinence. The real-time actionable insights from the Abena Nova solution enables caregivers to better plan and provide personalized care based on the individual’s needs. At the same time care staff gain insight into the incontinence pattern of the resident to plan and improve toileting and personal hygiene.

Abena Nova is the world’s first truly intelligent incontinence product for everyday use. It fuses the in-depth clinical expertise of incontinence and high quality diaper manufacturing from Abena with the innovative wearable sensor technology of MediSens Wireless.

“We are very proud to present the World’s first intelligent diaper in co-operation with one of the most innovative technology companies in medtech. With our vast experience in incontinence care combined with the unique wearable sensor technology from MediSens Wireless, we have developed a groundbreaking product, which will improve quality of life for people living with incontinence,” says Preben Terp-Nielsen, CEO of Abena.

Abena's strategic technology partner, MediSens Wireless, develops highly innovative sensor technology platforms.

“Our mission is to develop practical yet highly innovative technologies to improve the quality of care of clients at care facilities. Our wearable sensor platform has proprietary features to detect wetness and inform caregivers in real-time. We have successfully conducted several pilots in Europe to-date, and currently we are engaged in an in-depth trial with Philadelphia Zorg. Our goal is to offer comprehensive care and administrative-efficient solutions,” says Behrooz Yadegar, CEO of MediSens Wireless.

Right now Abena Nova is part of a large trial with the second largest special needs healthcare provider in Netherlands, Philadelphia Zorg. The trial will take place over a six month period among approximately 100 clients in multiple care facilities.

“Philadelphia Zorg has been instrumental in driving the development forward and has enabled us to validate laboratory tests in real life to ensure that the solution also works in real life," continues Behrooz Yadegar, CEO of MediSens Wireless In the upcoming months, several healthcare institutions around the world will start trials of the
Abena Nova solution. Abena Nova will be launched broadly in early 2018.