Falls occur frequently in hospitals as well as in nursing homes and senior care facilities and often go unnoticed for too long — sometimes with fatal consequences for those affected. In the future, radar-based fall monitoring systems are expected to better protect patients and residents while also reducing the workload on nursing staff.

The devices, which resemble smoke detectors, use radar technology to analyze the movement patterns of people in a room and can alert nursing staff — ideally before a fall occurs.

Tailored to Each Patient’s Risk of Falling

One hospital that has recently begun using such a system is the University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. “With the help of digital monitoring, we can keep an eye on our patients’ movement patterns; an alert is sent to nursing staff as soon as the system detects a risk of a fall or a fall itself,” explained Sven Ziegler, project manager from the Freiburg Nursing Practice Center. 

Ziegler and his team can individually specify which movements should trigger a notification. For patients with an increased risk of falling, simply sitting up in bed can trigger an alert. For people with dementia, the notification might only be sent when they leave the room. This allows the system to be flexibly adapted to the specific support needs of our patients, said Ziegler.

Alerts on Staff Smartphones and Central Screens

His team chose the system from QUMEA, a Swiss digital health company, with locations in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. The devices use 3D radar technology and exclusively track anonymous movement points in the room, which are analyzed using AI. “Cameras or microphones are not used, so the privacy of those affected is protected,” said Ziegler. According to the manufacturer, the system is currently in use at around 150 facilities.

The alerts are displayed via an app on staff smartphones and on the screens at the nursing station. Based on this, we receive real-time information about whether a patient is sitting up in bed, getting out of bed, or leaving the room. In the future, it will even provide information about individual bodily functions, such as heart rate, breathing, or possible tremors, explained Ziegler. 

The cost of QUMEA depends on the scope of the equipment and the functions used. In addition to a one-time expense for the radar sensors, there is a monthly usage fee. The manufacturer notes, however, that its system may be eligible for funding under certain conditions, for example, through the Hospital Transformation Fund.

Initial Study Results Are Promising

Studies are currently investigating how well such AI-supported devices can not only detect and report falls, but also actually prevent them. In Sweden, for example, scientists led by Jens Nygren, PhD, from Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden, launched the multicenter SAFE study (Safe AI-Assisted Fall Prevention Through Evidence) this year. By 2028, they plan to test the systems in several hospitals with a total of approximately 2400 patient beds.

In the completed but unpublished study, “AI Supported Delirium Management 2.0,” funded by the Velux Stiftung Switzerland, a team led by nursing scientist Wolfgang Hasemann, PhD, lecturer at the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, compared the QUMEA system with alarm-equipped contact mats placed in front of the bed in 119 patients with delirium.

According to Hasemann and his colleagues, there were 49 falls among the participants — who had an average age of 84 — within 1 year. Twenty-nine of these occurred while leaving the bed. According to the researchers, the risk of falling was nearly twice as high when using a traditional contact mat compared with QUMEA. Nighttime hours proved particularly risky for the patients: During night shifts, the risk of falling was 7.6 times higher among the participants who had only a contact mat in front of their bed.

Reduced Workload for Nursing Staff

The number of alerts indicating that a patient was leaving the bed rose by about 34% when the mats were in use, according to the researchers. As a result, daily care time per patient increased by 11%. The team also noted that the mats’ warnings were not always accurate. Hasemann’s group concluded that QUMEA not only lowers fall rates but is also the first system capable of objectively detecting falls. In addition, the device significantly reduced the workload for nursing staff.

A survey by the Felix Platter University Center for Geriatric Medicine in Basel also found that 42% of the 24 nursing staff surveyed rated QUMEA as “very good.” Overall, 58% of them found the system “good.” Minor deductions were made due to concerns regarding data privacy.

For home care, the radar- and AI-based devices are not yet intended. In that setting, wearables — systems worn on the body — are currently more commonly used. They utilize accelerometers to detect a potential fall and can then report it via an emergency call to a predesignated location. “However, I could well imagine that systems like QUMEA might eventually play a role in home care as well,” said Ziegler.

This story was translated from Medscape’s German edition.