The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that one in three Americans, more than 300,000 people age 65 and older, are hospitalized due to hip fractures every year. About 95 percent of those injuries happen due to falls. A quarter of them will die within a year due to their injuries. Another quarter will never live independently again. The direct and longterm care costs of hip fractures is estimated at tens of billions of dollars annually.
A Philadelphia trauma surgeon and an entrepreneur have created a wearable hip air bag for seniors to prevent hip fractures. ActiveProtective’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Robert Buckman, noticed how many elderly people were brought into hospitals with broken hips due to falls, and how often they don’t always recover from the injuries.
Dr. Buckman explained how his wearable hip air bag would be contained in a belt worn over clothing. In the case of a fall, the air bags would deploy from the belt within 30 milliseconds. When the wearer hits the ground, the airbag reduces the impact force to the hip bones by 90 percent, thus preventing hip fractures.
Since 2012, ActiveProtective secured several U.S. patents and launched two pilot programs at a senior-care facility in Northern California and with one of the largest U.S. post-acute-care providers, Genesis HealthCare.
Hip airbag belts are in development throughout the world by ActiveProtective in the USA, HipHope Technologies of Israel, Helite of France, and Wolk Co. of the Netherlands. Prices vary from $470 to $800 among these vendors and will be available this year. They also will use the airbag for other applications.
This is another example of technology benefiting the world!
~ Bob Larson is a technologist and Marketing Director for 50 Plus.