E-BAR operates as a set of robotic handlebars that follow users. The demographic landscape in the U.S. is shifting rapidly, with the median age now at 38.9, almost a decade older than it was in 1980. By 2050, the population of adults over 65 is projected to surge from 58 million to 82 million, intensifying the already urgent challenge of eldercare. With falls remaining the top cause of injury among older adults, the need for innovative, tech-driven solutions has never been clearer. MIT engineers are stepping up to this challenge with E-BAR, a mobile robot designed to physically support seniors and prevent falls as they move around their homes.

Doctors believe artificial intelligence is now saving lives after a major advancement in breast cancer screenings. AI is detecting early signs of the disease, in some cases years before doctors would find the cancer on a traditional scan. People suffering from dementia could live more independently thanks to a pair of AI-powered socks that can track everything from a patient's heart rate to movement. Called "SmartSocks," the AI-powered apparel was created in partnership between the University of Exeter and researchers at the start-up company Milbotix, according to SWNS. The socks can monitor a patient's heart rate, sweat levels and motion to prevent falls while also promoting independence for those with dementia. "I came up with the idea for SmartSocks while volunteering in a dementia care home," SmartSocks creator Zeke Steer, CEO of Milbotix, told SWNS.

Deepak Gaddipati is founder and chief technology officer at VirtuSense, an artificial intelligence company that aims to transform healthcare from reactive to proactive by alerting care teams to adverse events such as falls, sepsis and heart attacks before they occur. Gaddipati invented the first commercial full-body, automated, AI-powered scanning system, which is widely deployed across most U.S. airports. He is steeped in the power of AI. Healthcare IT News sat down with Gaddipati to discuss some of his work in healthcare with AI and where he sees the technology headed. You invented the full-body scanning system.

Inpatient falls are a serious safety issue in hospitals and healthcare facilities. Recent advances in video analytics for patient monitoring provide a non-intrusive avenue to reduce this risk through continuous activity monitoring. However, in-bed fall risk assessment systems have received less attention in the literature. The majority of prior studies have focused on fall event detection, and do not consider the circumstances that may indicate an imminent inpatient fall. Here, we propose a video-based system that can monitor the risk of a patient falling, and alert staff of unsafe behaviour to help prevent falls before they occur. We propose an approach that leverages recent advances in human localisation and skeleton pose estimation to extract spatial features from video frames recorded in a simulated environment. We demonstrate that body positions can be effectively recognised and provide useful evidence for fall risk assessment. This work highlights the benefits of video-based models for analysing behaviours of interest, and demonstrates how such a system could enable sufficient lead time for healthcare professionals to respond and address patient needs, which is necessary for the development of fall intervention programs.

The demographics of Canada are changing quickly. By 2050, 26% of Canada's population is expected to be aged 65 or better, up from 18% today. With smaller families, busier schedules, and tighter budgets, the pressure is on to find solutions to ensure this growing group of people receives quality care. Fortunately, artificial intelligence is helping the retirement industry serve up innovative solutions to meet the burgeoning need. Though results from our 2019 Sklar Wilton AI tracker* indicate that 57% of people aged 65 and older don't understand the current state of artificial intelligence, 71% believe AI may affect them.

Elderly people could soon be wearing a sci-fi style robotic exoskeleton to stop them falling over. The lightweight powered device is worn from the waist down and has motors at the hip and braces made out of carbon fibre. Sensors and an algorithm detect the onset of a stumble - helping the wearer to recover their balance. It can be personalised for any individual in just a few minutes. Elderly people could soon be wearing a sci-fi style robotic exoskeleton to stop them falling over.