Air bags could save family members from a fatal fall

A study of hip fractures among those 65 or older in the The Journal of the American Medical Association determined that of the 300,000 Americans in this age group who fracture a hip each year, as many as three out of ten will die within a year. The study also found that many more of these victims will experience “significant functional loss.”

One possible technology that can help are airbags like those used in automobiles.

One pioneer in preventing hip fractures is Dr. Robert Buckman, MD. A former trauma surgeon, he started Active Protective to help design wearable safety devices that could prevent fractures. That led to a partnership with Key Safety Systems. You may have heard of KSS. This leader in the field of automotive airbags made headlines when it acquired Takata after its disastrous bankruptcy.

As far as the technical challenges go, this one is a piece of cake. For side airbags to work properly they must deploy in about 10 milliseconds. An airbag worn around the waist has up to ten times that amount of time to detect a fall and deploy. That relatively long span of time allows engineers to avoid having to use fast-acting, and powerful pyrotechnic actuators that could cause harm.

The technology seems promising, but is there really a market? With over 3 million emergency room admissions each year due to falls, and ten percent of those being hip fractures, the answer seems to be a definitive “yes.”