How ‘smart socks’ can save your life

NEW ‘smart socks’ being trialled in an NHS hospital could help to save lives – by alerting nurses when a patient puts weight on their feet.

Almost 100 patients die each year due to falls, often when they are recovering from surgery or, if they are suffering from dementia, when they climb out of bed without help.

The Patient Is Up (PUP) socks have built-in pressure sensors that send a signal to staff when a patient stands.

Russell Nightingale, from North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton, North London, where the socks are being tested, said: ‘This technology will get us to the patient within seconds of them stepping out of bed.’