Each year, one in every three adults age 65 and older falls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These falls can cause moderate to severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head traumas, and can increase the risk of early death, according to the CDC. Annually, 40,000 individuals who are over 65 years of age visit emergency departments with traumatic brain injuries suffered as a result of a fall, of which 16,000 of these individual are hospitalized and 4,000 of these individuals die. Indeed, falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among older adults, resulting in approximately $30 billion in direct medical costs per year.
Enter Patrick Hardigan, Ph.D., Executive Director for Health Professions Division Research at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). Dr. Hardigan set out to develop a model useful for predicting the effect that medication and dosage has on injurious falling. He recently received U.S. Patent No. 8,521,490, titled Statistical model for predicting falling in humans.
“Our goal is to develop a multidisciplinary fall prevention program and ultimately reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries due to falls,” said Hardigan.
The “Fall Model” uses a robust amount of unidentified patient information from the State of Florida and other public sources such as height, weight and age, combined with each respective patient’s clinical diagnosis and prescription medication regimen to determine the patient’s likelihood of falling. The result is a “likely” or “not likely” determination.
The ‘490 patent describes an as yet unbuilt computerized method for analyzing the likelihood of biomedical factors contributing to a greater risk of falling in humans. Variables representing biomedical factors are entered into the system to determine a correlation between the biomedical factors and a probability of falling. The biomedical factors that can be analyzed are numerous. The patent lists the following:
[B]iomedical factors are selected from the group consisting of the following: arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, foot disorders, Parkinson’s Disease, stroke, eye disorder, limb disorder, proprioceptive disorder, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease, neurological disease, metabolic disease, respiratory disease, diseases and disorders of the nervous system, diseases and disorders of the eye, diseases and disorders of the ear, diseases and disorders of the nose, diseases and disorders of the mouth, diseases and disorders of the throat, diseases and disorders of the respiratory system, diseases and disorders of the circulatory system, diseases and disorders of the digestive system, diseases and disorders of the hepatobiliary system, diseases and disorders of the pancreas, diseases and disorders of the musculoskeletal system, diseases and disorders of the connective tissue, diseases and disorders of the skin, diseases and disorders of the subcutaneous tissue, diseases and disorders of the breast, diseases and disorders of the endocrine system, diseases and disorders of nutrition, diseases and disorders of metabolism, diseases and disorders of the blood, diseases and disorders of blood forming organs, diseases and disorders of the immune system, myeloproliferative diseases and disorders, diseases and disorders of poorly differentiated neoplasms, and significant trauma.
This model will eventually be computerized for use in health care settings, including hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and clinics. This computerized application will provide individual risk profiles for falling that will enable health professionals to implement personalized fall prevention strategies. Providers will be able to enter patient data to determine if alternate drugs should be prescribed or dosages altered, and/or whether a patient should be under stricter observation or undergo physical therapy or another form of preventative measure to reduce the risk of the patient falling.
Tags: CDC, Centers for Disease Control, Fall Model, patent, patents
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