I.2 A way to enable patients to collect a ‘clean catch’ urine sample to increase diagnostic & testing yield

Need statement: A way to enable a “clean catch” of urine sample in non-acute setting used for lab testing for patients suspected to have UTI in order to increase diagnostic & testing yield.

Physicians and nurses in this care space are most concerned with the diagnosis and timely treatment of UTI. Challenges associated with timely UTI diagnosis and treatment are tied primarily to turn around time and sample collection issues.

A way to avoid sample collection issues is to instruct the person/patient to get a clean catch of urine sample. A clean catch urine collection is a method of obtaining a urine specimen that is free of most germs that normally are found on the skin of the urinary area. The clean catch method is used to avoid contaminating the urine sample with bacteria that are normally present in the urethra and appear in a voided urine sample. It is used for a routine urinalysis, urine culture, or other urine tests that require uncontaminated urine for accurate results. Majority of urine-based tests have concerns regarding contamination, requiring “clean catch”. 

The goal of the project is to enable a person in a non-acute setting to privately and efficiently gather a clean urine sample in a way that eliminates contamination and increases test yield and accuracy.