To keep hospitalized patients safer, University of Arizona (UA) researchers are working on new technology that involves a small, wearable sensor that measures a patient’s activity, heart rate, wakefulness, and other biometrics—data that can predict a fall before it happens.

More than 500,000 hospitalized patients fall each year in U.S. hospitals, resulting in 150,000 injuries, according to an estimate from the National Patient Safety Foundation. The problem prompted Cindy Rishel, the University of Arizona Medical Center's administrator of nursing research and practice, to find a solution.

“We currently use the Heinrich II fall risk assessment to determine patients’ risk for falling,” Rishel explains. “But it’s not as thorough as we’d like, and often our assessment of risk is subjective when based on patient self-reporting.”

Bijan Najafi, UA associate professor of surgery, medicine, and engineering and director of the interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance, or iCAMP, along with his team of engineers, welcomed the challenge.

 …