Sensor Technology Takes on Risk of Elderly Falls

Every 13 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall. Every 20 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall-related trauma. Responding to this data, staff at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering conducted a survey on falls among the elderly. They discovered that Americans are very worried about elderly parents falling.

The researchers learned that 54% of 1, 900 surveyed U.S. adults are worried about an older parent falling, and that 81% of respondents expressed an interest in new sensor technology that can anticipate and prevent falls.

To deal with falling risk researchers at Carnegie Mellon are developing sensor technology for senior care facilities and private homes that can sense and issue a signal when a patient is in danger of falling and where they are located in the building.

According to Susan D. Hall, writing for Fierce IT, the technology being developed monitors an elderly person’s gait and sends alerts to that individual and to caregivers about the potential for a fall. Hall also reports that Italian researchers have developed a smart home system featuring wearables, a real-time fall-detection algorithm and shoe-based activity monitoring to help prevent falls in elderly patients.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon believe that the technology, once in place, has the potential to help the elderly live more independent lives.