Neurogastroenterology & Motility paper describes the Auckland Classification, which is designed to bring clinical clarity to the hundreds of millions of patients worldwide
The Auckland Classification, developed with input from 47 clinical experts in 13 countries, relies on the Gastric Alimetry® system to support improved clinical evaluation
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, July 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alimetry, a privately held medical technology company dedicated to advancing the diagnosis and management of gastric disorders, announced the publication of a landmark paper in Neurogastroenterology & Motility establishing the first framework to characterize patterns of gastric activity in patients with chronic stomach conditions. The paper resulted from the work of a 47-member expert working group with leading gastroenterologists from 13 countries, coming together to identify the best methods to support informed clinical evaluation of chronic stomach conditions and resulted in consensus around the Auckland Classification. The Classification leveraged data from the Gastric Alimetry® system, to support more informed clinical evaluation1.
Millions of people experience chronic stomach disorders with wide-ranging symptoms including nausea, vomiting, excessive fullness, and pain, particularly after eating. Conditions such as gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) and functional dyspepsia (chronic indigestion without a structural cause), together affect roughly one in ten people worldwide. Patients with these conditions often face a frustrating reality: tests come back inconclusive, treatments are tried and abandoned, and patients are often told their symptoms have no clear cause. Aligning the clinical community on the use of better diagnostic tools offers the potential to bring evidence-based answers to many of these patients.
The expert panel’s ‘Auckland Classification v1.0’ is the first-ever standardized framework for classifying the specific mechanism behind a patient’s chronic stomach condition using the electrical activity of the stomach itself. The classification utilized published data from the Gastric Alimetry® system, a non-invasive high-resolution sensor applied to the abdomen during a clinic-based test that reads the stomach’s electrical activity.
“This classification is the result of years of rigorous science and an extraordinary collaborative effort by clinical gastroenterology experts on four continents,” said the paper’s lead author, Professor Greg O’Grady, Ph.D., MBChB, Department of Surgery, University of Auckland; Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alimetry. “Its arrival signals a move from symptom labels and guesswork to precision care, hopefully bringing new clarity to patients who desperately need solutions.”
New research shows how the stomach’s electrical signals can illuminate the mechanisms behind chronic gastric symptoms
Patients with stomach disorders routinely face years of trial-and-error management, leaving many without a satisfying biological explanation for what they are experiencing. The standard diagnostic test, gastric emptying scintigraphy, a nuclear medicine scan that measures how quickly the stomach clears a meal, can confirm whether the stomach is slow, but cannot explain why. For clinicians, this test may be insufficient for identifying the underlying cause of a patient’s symptoms and helping decide which treatments may be best.
The stomach generates its own electrical signals that coordinate every contraction and govern how food moves through the digestive system. The Gastric Alimetry® system captures and interprets this activity non-invasively, using a high-resolution sensor array applied to the abdomen during a supervised test, requiring no radiation, and no sedation.
As outlined in the publication, the Auckland Classification explains where a patient’s symptoms are coming from: whether they originate in the stomach’s own electrical and muscular activity, in the nerves connecting the stomach to the brain, or centrally, through the gut-brain axis. The result is information that has long been missing from this field, a way to understand what is actually happening in the stomach, grounded in patient reported symptoms as well as objective biological data. For patients who have spent years being told their tests are normal, it can help provide their clinicians with new insights from which to make a diagnosis or guide treatment.
“For the first time, we have a common framework that allows clinicians to move beyond asking whether the stomach is slow or not, to asking what else might be causing symptoms, and which treatments might work best,” said consensus group member, Linda Nguyen, M.D., Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Hoag Digestive Health Institute (Newport Beach, CA, USA).
The framework synthesizes evidence from 50 published studies and more than 4,500 patient tests, with the international expert group reaching consensus on each element of the classification, as well as the classification as a whole.
About Gastric Alimetry®
The Gastric Alimetry® system measures the electrical slow waves generated by the stomach’s pacemaker cells, the upstream signals that initiate and coordinate every contraction. During a supervised four-and-a-half-hour test in a clinic or hospital, a high-resolution sensor array of 64 electrodes is applied to the patient’s abdomen to record gastric electrical activity continuously. Advanced signal processing and AI-assisted analysis then interpret the complex electrical patterns generated, producing validated, clinically actionable outputs. Patients also log their symptoms in real time through a validated companion app, allowing direct correlation between electrical findings and the patient’s specific symptom experience.
The Gastric Alimetry® system is the first platform for high-resolution Body Surface Gastric Mapping cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) via 510(k) clearance for patients aged 12 and older. The test is non-invasive, radiation-free, and requires no sedation. The Auckland Classification described in the accompanying publication has not been reviewed or cleared by the FDA.
About Alimetry
Alimetry is a medical technology company headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, dedicated to advancing the diagnosis and management of gastric disorders. The company’s Gastric Alimetry® system is the first FDA-cleared platform for high-resolution Body Surface Gastric Mapping, a non-invasive, radiation-free approach that reads the electrical activity of the stomach with clinical precision to help deliver diagnostic clarity in patients with chronic gastroduodenal conditions. Founded by a research collaboration between clinician-scientists and engineers from New Zealand and the United States, Alimetry developed technology commercially available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand and is supported by more than 50 published clinical studies. For more information, visit www.alimetry.com or visit us on LinkedIn.
1 The Auckland Classification v1.0 is an academic consensus framework developed by an international working group. Clinical phenotypes and associated treatment considerations are intended to inform future research and are not established clinical treatment guidelines. Physicians should consult current device labeling and applicable clinical guidelines when making individual patient management decisions. This announcement does not constitute a claim regarding approved indications beyond those described in current Gastric Alimetry® device labeling.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4d6e1e8d-4862-4410-91ac-df7042931815
