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Fall Competence Center
Published on 04 September 2018
Portugal
Norte
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
Falls are not an inevitable consequence of aging. Its prevention and early detection is of the uttermost importance, since the delay between the fall and the intervention is correlated with morbidity and mortality rates. Reliable smartphone-based automatic fall detection and emergency assistance notification may improve the prognosis of fall victims. Moreover, a comprehensive assessment of fall risk factors, using the smartphone and its sensing capabilities, can be used to tailor fall prevention actions and avoid the occurrence of future falls.
A general decline in physical function and balance problems make older people more prone to falls. Exercises for balance control, mobility and flexibility are effective strategies for fall prevention, however, older people lack motivation to perform these exercises at home, in a daily-basis. The FCC proposed to implement these exercises as motivating interactive games, using inertial sensors to evaluate performance and movement quality. The fall prevention tools developed can be used not only by health professionals in local healthcare facilities or physiotherapy clinics, but also by caregivers in elder care institutions, or even by the elders themselves at home.
The main beneficiaries of the technological solutions developed within the FCC are the elders and their formal and informal caregivers. Other stakeholders are physiotherapists, doctors, nurses and Elder Care staff.
A general decline in physical function and balance problems make older people more prone to falls. Exercises for balance control, mobility and flexibility are effective strategies for fall prevention, however, older people lack motivation to perform these exercises at home, in a daily-basis. The FCC proposed to implement these exercises as motivating interactive games, using inertial sensors to evaluate performance and movement quality. The fall prevention tools developed can be used not only by health professionals in local healthcare facilities or physiotherapy clinics, but also by caregivers in elder care institutions, or even by the elders themselves at home.
The main beneficiaries of the technological solutions developed within the FCC are the elders and their formal and informal caregivers. Other stakeholders are physiotherapists, doctors, nurses and Elder Care staff.
Resources needed
Total 1.5M€ of which 700k€ of public funding by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2), Portuguese National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) from European Union through the project Fall Competence Center NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000041.
Evidence of success
The FCC solutions will allow improving the assistance provided upon a fall and therefore minimize injuries, psychological damage, mobility limitations and reduced quality of life. These solutions should therefore have an important impact not only for individuals at higher risk of falling but also improve the sustainability of health care systems.
The work FCC developed resulted in 8 software prototypes,15 MSc Thesis and 8scientific publications, with field conditions with around 200 volunteers.
The work FCC developed resulted in 8 software prototypes,15 MSc Thesis and 8scientific publications, with field conditions with around 200 volunteers.
Potential for learning or transfer
First, these new solutions have a great potential of transference to the industry to be converted in valuable products, since these technological developments are based on smartphones, and the devices are of easy access and continuously used on the daily routine. Actually, this project’s technology has already been licensed to be used by GOCIETY, a tech company that works for similar purposes. Several other project stemmed from FCC, namely 3 European projects in the area of falls and frailty prevention, and 3 National project in cooperation with Portuguese start-ups, in the areas of fall detection, fall risk prediction & prevention and technologies for rehabilitation.
Finally, the modular implementation of these value propositions allows an easy transfer to different contexts, for example, indoor localization technology that uses data on human movement, data collection during clinical trials, detection and follow-up of movement diseases, sports, amongst others.
Finally, the modular implementation of these value propositions allows an easy transfer to different contexts, for example, indoor localization technology that uses data on human movement, data collection during clinical trials, detection and follow-up of movement diseases, sports, amongst others.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
Organisation
Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research
Portugal
Norte
Contact
Project Manager