“For over a decade, I have treated fall victims who were sadly found hours to days later because they did not wear or own a medical alert system,” states trauma surgeon and President of FallCall Solutions, Shea C. Gregg, MD. “Our quest to invent a new fall detection system began years ago, but we needed a device that was wrist worn, had plenty of processing power and was attractive to the masses. It was the advent of smartwatches that gave us the inspiration we needed. In my mind, this was the beginning of a revolution in the traditional medical alert ecosystem.”
For years, fall detection built into lanyards and other devices have initiated communications after a fall pattern was detected. “We wanted to create something more ambitious: a downloadable app onto a smartwatch that could differentiate between types of falls, including low mechanism falls (sitting position) versus high mechanism falls (standing position). By doing so, we could potentially decrease false alarms to emergency dispatchers and be more engaging to Caregivers in the response.”
Early research was conducted using a motion tracking app created by FallCall Solutions team members called FallCapture Now™ that ran on Apple Watch®Series 1. After studying the fall patterns of Elders described in the medical literature, experiments were conducted to mimic these falls using weighted mannequins with smartwatches attached to their wrists in a fall-tracking laboratory. Hundreds of falls were recorded by FallCapture Now and the experiments were videotaped to ensure consistency.
“What we started to see in our data was that fall types could be differentiated. This became a feature of our invention and ultimately a component of our patent,” Gregg continues. “Validation experiments were performed that showed good to excellent sensitivity given industry averages. As we move forward, we are confident that ongoing experimentation will lead us to further improvements.”
FallCall Solutions has released FallCall™ Lite while it continues to build FallCall™ Detect. “FallCall Lite provides safety for the active lifestyle. It uniquely integrates into a 24/7 emergency dispatch center, updates Caregivers during emergency events and has adopted Siri® Shortcuts to streamline verbal calls for help. This provides our customers a proven 99.8% reliable medical alert system that can get users the help they need when sick or injured. It also gives us the system infrastructure to integrate our “smart” fall detection system.”
As of this publication, the release date for FallCall Detect has not been announced. “We are excited that our invention was patented because we truly believe that it has the potential to help fall victims. While we continue our testing, we will also continue to explore additional wearable platforms for this innovative technology.”
Additional patent applications are pending for further features of this invention.
Media Contacts:
Shea Gregg, MD
Founder/President, FallCall Solutions
203-736-7647
