Barron Associates awarded Phase II NIH grant to study falls in hospitals

Fall detection, assessment, and prevention is a challenging issue across the care continuum. Despite wide recognition as a considerable problem, fall-related injuries are still the most frequently reported adverse events in hospital inpatient settings. Although hospitals employ diverse programs to prevent falls and fall injuries, an essential component to a fall prevention program is accurate determination of fall events, as many falls are “unseen” and unreported.

Barron Associates’ FallCall system leverages powerful sensing capabilities to provide robust fall detection and to report fall locations without bothersome false alarms. The body-worn system can be placed anywhere on the torso to minimize interaction with other medical equipment or injury sites. The system will continuously monitor patients and issue a timely alert if a fall is detected, minimizing patient time on the ground, as well as injury assessment and treatment latencies.