Tummy tracking

Auckland researchers have helped develop a non-invasive technique to investigate gastric problems.

- NICKY PELLEGRINO

Ongoing nausea, vomiting and stomach pain can be difficult for doctors to fathom. Once the obvious causes like a gut infection or food poisoning have been ruled out, many patients find themselves on what gastrointestinal surgeon Greg O'Grady calls "a diagnostic treadmill". The process can take years, involving multiple tests and scans and over-exposure to radiation. Some people never pin down exactly what is going on.

"Unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms are common," explains O'Grady, a professor at the University of Auckland. "About one in 10 people experience symptoms like indigestion, nausea, pain after eating, bloating. But the clinical tools to diagnose these disorders are poor and have lagged behind other fields of medicine, like cardiology."

Clearly, what was needed was a noninvasive and accurate way to diagnose patients more quickly. To develop such a solution, O'Grady and a team of Auckland researchers joined forces with a US expert in wearable technologies, Armen Gharibans. The result, a medical device called Gastric Alimetry, is now in use in 37 hospitals and clinics in six different countries.