New Tools to Reduce Falls

A group of researchers is experimenting with digital tools designed to help reduce falls among elderly patients, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, more than one-third of individuals age 65 and older fall each year, with approximately 10 percent of such falls resulting in serious injury. Click here to learn more.

Our INQRI team at Brigham and Women's Hospital has also designed a tool to help prevent falls. Their project has addressed gaps in knowledge by establishing linkages between nursing fall risk assessment, risk communication and tailored interventions to prevent falls. The goal of this study was to prevent patient falls by translating an individual patient's fall risk assessment into a decision support intervention. This innovative intervention communicates fall risk status and creates a tailored evidence-based plan of care that is accessible to interdisciplinary team members, paraprofessionals, patients and family members.