Computer vision, artificial intelligence, and advanced room environmental sensors observe resident and staff behavior while maintaining privacy.
Maplewood Senior Living announced the results of a 6-month pilot program – designed to reduce falls among their resident population – recently implemented at its New York City property, Inspīr Carnegie Hill. Thanks to a revolutionary platform co-developed by Maplewood and Inspiren, Inc., called AUGi (for Augmented Intelligence), the senior living community reported 400 AI-driven fall "saves" in its most vulnerable population of memory care residents. These preliminary findings offer tremendous hope for the entire senior care industry, as falls in older adults (65+) result in over 32,000 deaths each year, according to the CDC.
"Over the past 6 months, the technology has proven itself to be a critical tool used by our team," says Gregory D. Smith, President and CEO of Maplewood Senior Living and Inspīr. "We are excited by these results and happy to say that AUGi has had a significantly positive impact on the safety of our most vulnerable residents and has given their families added peace of mind."
AUGi – the world's first cognitive resident care assistant provides unparalleled visibility and insights into the care environment and acts like an extra set of eyes in at-risk resident apartments so caregivers can quickly respond to potential or actual safety events, like falls. "What's extraordinary about AUGi is that the system is often able to notify staff before a fall occurs, giving them time to intervene and prevent it from happening in the first place," says Brian Geyser, Chief Clinical Officer for Maplewood.
The platform consists of a sleek wall-mounted automated sensor system that uses computer vision, artificial intelligence, and advanced room environmental
sensors to passively and continually observe resident and staff behavior while maintaining privacy. It can un
cover sleep patterns, resident mobility issues, and general room activity through computer vision technology which gives the care team unprecedented privacy protected, HIPAA-compliant, real-time visibility into the place where at-risk residents are most vulnerable – their apartments.
The system proactively notifies staff when a fall may be imminent, such as when an at-risk resident is getting up out of bed or out of their chair. Smart, contextual notifications provide staff with insight into what is taking place with the resident in their apartment in real-time, which gives staff the ability to prioritize responses.
At Inspīr, AUGi prompted 400 timely staff interventions since implementing the program in September with 33 of its memory care residents. That's 400 times when residents were attempting to get out of bed or out of their chairs and could have very easily fallen. Instead, staff were able to rapidly attend to the residents and ensure they were safe. The residents were selected based on a wide range of factors, including fall risk, nighttime behavior and level of mobility.
"The number one goal of the pilot was to see if we could reduce the number of falls in our most vulnerable population, and we are extremely pleased with the results. We only had 2 falls in the cohort of residents enrolled in the pilot over a 6 month period, which is astounding. And we know we prevented so many more falls based on analysis of the data that AUGi provides to us," said Brian Geyser.
Maplewood will be adding an additional 30 AUGi units at Inspīr and partnering with Hunter College School of Nursing to study the positive impact of AUGi on resident safety. Maplewood has additional plans to expand the AUGi technology to other properties in the near future. Additionally, Maplewood is piloting a similar product with SafelyYou in the coming months, available in select communities to compare fall prevention outcomes.
"Inspīr is devoted to keeping their residents safe and happy in their later years of life. Their focus on safety and innovation makes them an ideal partner for the AUGi platform. Many of us have aging family members who are at serious risk of falling. This is a problem that results in critical injuries and even death, which no one wants their loved one to experience," said Vincent Cocito, COO and Co-Founder of Inspiren, Inc. "We are excited to continue to give Maplewood's communities the tools and technologies needed to keep residents safer."