Picture this. Residents check the calendar for that evening’s activities and they’re thrilled to see it there, right near dinner time: “Gait night.” Residents gather for a short walking exercise to capture their gait for analysis. They walk back and forth in front of a camera under the supervision of the community’s program manager and physical therapy team. They cheer for each other.
And at the end, after the camaraderie and spirit, each resident has invaluable data and insight into their walking capabilities and potential level of gait deterioration, thus reducing fall risk — a powerful tool against occupancy loss.
That is the experience senior living operators are having with artificial intelligence gait analysis.
“The test only takes 20 seconds,” says Nick Hughes, CEO and co-founder of Salus Physical Therapy. “With this technology, we’re able to capture more of the seniors in an AL faster than any before.”
Operators might still think of residents as hesitant to AI, real-time medical data analytics, or both. But in working with Denver-based motion intelligence team Exer Labs, Hughes and the team at Salus have found residents willing and eager to engage with these tools. Making it fun is one of four key reasons why. Here is a look at the four.
Falls are a top reason residents are pulled out of communities
Every resident moves into a senior community for a reason. No matter the reason — socialization and lifestyle, health and safety, or something else — that resident wants to remain in the community, and certainly out of a hospital. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three million older adults in the U.S. are treated annually in emergency departments for fall injuries, with over 800,000 hospitalized.
When residents fall and land in the E.D., their ability to live independently, even in assisted living, declines. Their family members, meanwhile, lose trust in either that community specifically or in seniors housing more generally — a resistance that can damage occupancy. While more than one out of four adults aged 65 and up fall each year, Salus alone was able to help its assisted living partners lower its fall rate to under 10%.
“With Exer, we’ve seen that drop to 5 to 6 percent,” Hughes says. “Our goal, which is a lofty one, is when we employ Salus and Exer into a new community, that fall rate is down to zero. We think this will be the next iteration in senior living care in the United States.”
Gait deterioration is tied to a long list of health concerns
One out of five falls for older adults causes a serious injury, the CDC notes, such as broken bones or a head injury. Hip fractures are also common. But once a fallen resident has recovered from those injuries that are tied directly to the fall itself, they are left with long-term challenges.
Residents know that the fall itself is not the only problem with a fall. Rehabilitation is long and physical decline can be steep. Bringing physical therapy to residents and working to lengthen their stride and increase their gait speed while measuring changes in both and tracking that data over time — all of this leads to healthier residents both short- and long-term.
“We took this incredible artificial intelligence software and found a way to combine it with gait speed to see what would happen over the next 30, 60, 90 days,” Hughes says. “It is incredible walking technology that we think will change the entire platform in senior living.”
A camera system is non-invasive
While the notion of the tech-resistant senior has largely and rightly been set aside, physical impediments of technology are real. Plenty of residents still avoid wearables simply due to comfort or habit, and the creeping “Big Brother” concern around technology data collection is felt by people of all ages. Staff members also wonder how, with so much already on their plate, they will learn system after system.
That’s why Exer uses technology tools that residents find non-invasive and staff find intuitive: a camera plus an app that runs through the caregiver’s normal phone or tablet, all syncing with existing EMR software.
“There is a lot going on under the hood, but the simplest way to understand it is that Exer uses an artificial intelligence that can run on anything with a camera,” says Exer Labs co-founder and CEO Zaw Thet. “We don’t require sensors. We belong to this branch of AI called ‘computer vision.’”
One of the keys for residents feeling comfortable is that there is no facial recognition. Exer uses what’s called “body pose tracking,” in which a person performs walking, stretching and motion exercises in front of a camera, which captures their image at 24 points across the body. They then do it again some time later to check for differences.
That distance from the camera and technology is another key for residents. Nothing is strapped to them or even physically close to them.
“That’s the core of the technology that we run, and it means that it’s opening access to people who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on expensive hardware,” Thet says. “We then help measure motion to enable health.”
Lastly, all data is stored privately and locally through whatever device the staff member is using. If the resident wants to send the data to a physician or family member, the system allows for HIPAA-compliant sharing.
Gait analysis can be fun for residents
The fun aspect comes last, but holds it all together.
“What we’ve seen with our facility partners is that they’re doing gait events,” Thet says. “Instead of being a one-off thing, they’re doing it around meal time. They’re seeing 40 to 50 residents or more go through it together and cheer each other on, so we can cover a huge amount of the facility. They’re excited for each other.”
This article is sponsored by Exer Labs. To learn more about how non-invasive camera-based gait motion intelligence can bring health and piece of mind to residents and family — while strengthening occupancy — visit Exer.AI.
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