The Cost of Falls: How Advanced Fall Detection Can Save Lives and Money

Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths globally. Each year, millions of falls require medical attention, causing a significant financial burden on individuals, healthcare systems, and businesses.

The Devastating Impact on Seniors

Among those affected, adults aged 60 and above are particularly vulnerable. Every year, over 680,000 adults aged 60 and above lose their lives due to falls, marking them as the most vulnerable group. In addition to these fatalities, approximately 37.3 million falls require medical attention annually, with hospitalization costs ranging between $6,646 to $17,483. The impact of falls extends beyond immediate physical injury; between 20-85% of older adults develop a fear of falling. This fear can restrict daily activities for 20-55% of those affected, exacerbating existing health conditions and leading to new complications associated with less active lifestyles.

The Challenge of Workplace Falls 

Falls in the workplace represent a substantial financial challenge, costing approximately $70 billion annually in worker’s compensation and medical bills in the US alone. Industries such as construction, manufacturing, and healthcare face the highest risks, largely due to environmental factors like working at heights, navigating uneven surfaces, or the physical demands of lifting heavy objects.

The significant financial and health risks associated with falls highlight the need for an effective solution to help reduce fall-related injuries, prevent future ones, and provide seniors and employers with peace of mind. 

Binah.ai’s Fall Detection

Binah.ai’s fall detection goes beyond simple fall alerts. It’s a comprehensive safety solution, powered by Binah.ai’s cutting-edge software and the Polar Verity Sense™ optical heart rate sensor, that integrates real-time fall detection with continuous health monitoring. This empowers organizations to proactively manage fall risks and safeguard their employees, clients, or patients. How Binah.ai’s Fall Detection Works:

Users connect a Polar Verity Sense™ optical heart rate sensor to their phone via Bluetooth®, wear the sensor comfortably around their arm, and keep their phone nearby. When a fall is detected using the sensor’s gyroscope and accelerometer, an alert appears on the user’s phone screen with a short timer prompting the user to respond. If the timer expires without a response, the system triggers vital sign measurements like blood pressure and heart rate variability, and captures the user’s location via their smartphone. This information is then transmitted to a designated contact to enable prompt response. All fall events are logged for easy review and analysis, providing valuable insights for future fall prevention. (Settings such as the timer and vital signs measurement trigger can be configured to suit each organization’s unique needs.)

Real World Application: NTT East Partnership 

To address workplace safety challenges, NTT East partnered with Binah.ai to develop the “Wearable Connect” solution, utilizing the Binah Connect app and the Polar Verity Sense™ optical heart rate sensor to measure individual employees’ heart rate, location information, falls or stagnation and heat strokes.The data is processed and stored in the company cloud, enabling centralized and more effective management of employee conditions as well as alert notifications for administrators and employees. The solution provides NTT East with a holistic tool for employee health and safety monitoring that allows for early detection of worker discomfort or incidents and swift initiation of first-response measures to prevent occupational accidents.

The Benefits of Fall Detection:

Our continuous monitoring and fall detection solution provides a comprehensive overview of a user’s health and wellness levels before and after a fall, enabling smarter decision-making, faster responses, and improved preventative measures across various applications:

Remote Patient Monitoring: Healthcare providers can remotely monitor patients at risk of falls, enabling faster intervention and improved outcomes.

Enhanced Senior Care: Seniors can maintain independence with peace of mind, knowing they’ll receive prompt assistance if a fall occurs. 

Improved Workplace Safety: Real-time monitoring ensures employee safety, minimizes downtime due to falls, and allows for data-driven identification of potential workplace hazards. 

Chronic Disease Management: Real-time health and fall tracking enables patients to better manage chronic diseases, sending providers and stakeholders real-time health data to improve 

Empower User Safety with Binah.ai’s Continuous Checks 

Binah.ai’s continuous wellness monitoring and fall detection is available as both an SDK or a ready-to-use app, Binah Connect. In addition to continuous fall detection, users can measure blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, sympathetic stress, parasympathetic activity, pulse respiration quotient (PRQ) through Binah.ai’s continuous health and wellness monitoring. The technology also provides a wellness score that enables users to get a quick snapshot of their general wellness levels. 

To learn how you can enhance end user safety with Binah.ai’s continuous fall detection and wellness monitoring, watch our recent webinar on fall detection.