Technological prospecting of patents related to monitoring accidents due to falls in hospitals.
Renata Camargo Alves, Rosana Maria Barreto Colichi, Silvana Andrea Molina Lima
PMID 38422309WHAT IT FOUND
Hospital fall monitoring patents were mainly from the United States, China, Japan and Korea, mostly environmental devices aimed at prevention, and the most cited were wearable devices.
This is a patent map, not evidence that any device prevents patient falls.
Key findings
01The patent search produced 212 patents after 208 of the 420 initial records were excluded.
02Most patents were environmental devices (81%, 171), and most were aimed at preventing falls (66.5%, 141) rather than detecting falls (33.5%, 71).
03The ten most cited patents included wearable devices, and some devices signal when a patient leaves a bed or chair.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study mapped patents, not patients, so it reports no clinical outcomes and cannot show that any device prevents or detects falls in hospital care. The search used only the Derwent Innovations Index for patents published from 2000 to 2022, so relevant patents in other databases or in confidentiality protection periods may have been missed. The study did not evaluate whether patented devices were actually implemented, safe, usable, privacy-preserving, affordable or effective. It excluded patents intended only for the domestic environment and devices not intended for patient monitoring, so it may not cover all relevant fall technologies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the patent counts as evidence that these devices prevent falls. The study mapped registered patents only and did not test any device in patients.