Hip-Hope cushions falls to prevent fractures in elderly
March 6, 2017
The belt-like wearable device is a high-tech Israeli response to a serious and costly health problem faced by the world’s older population.
“When his elderly mother fell and broke a hip for the second time, former Israeli Air Force pilot and industrial and management engineer Amatsia Raanan searched for a product to prevent this most common serious injury in older people.
‘Through her suffering I learned about the epidemic of hip fractures,’ Raanan tells ISRAEL21c.
Each year, nearly 3 million seniors worldwide are hospitalized due to hip fractures. Many of them experience a drastic deterioration in quality of life. And the direct annual cost of treating hip fractures exceeds $15 billion in the US healthcare system alone.
Rather than focus on better ways to treat the broken bone, Raanan decided to leverage cutting-edge technology to protect the pelvis upon impact and avoid injury in the first place. He and three cofounders developed Hip-Hope, a smart wearable device designed as a belt.”