Edison Nation Medical Seeks Product Innovations to Reduce the Incidence of Patient Falls in the Acute Care Setting

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Edison Nation Medical, a healthcare innovation marketplace, today announced a worldwide search for solutions aimed at reducing the incidence of patient falls in the acute care setting. Innovation ideas can include, but are not limited to, support equipment, furniture redesigns, sensors, and warning systems.  Edison Nation Medical will carefully evaluate all ideas submitted and will work to license the most promising innovations, sharing resulting licensing royalties with the inventor(s) involved.

The Edison Nation Medical innovation search is open to the public. Submissions should be made to Edison Nation Medical's confidential and secure online portal at www.EdisonNationMedical.com/Falls now through Tuesday, September 30, 2014. 

Patient falls in hospitals are estimated at 700,000 to 1 million patients annually.  An estimated 30% of inpatient falls result in serious injury.  Fall prevention is a complex issue because of the many factors that can be associated with a patient falling, including patient factors such as weak muscles, chronic conditions, medication-related dizziness, and toileting needs.  Environmental factors can also play a role including beds positioning or height, design of furnishings, poor illumination, condition of ground surfaces, type of footwear, equipment without support (grab bars), and inadequate or inaccessible assistive devices.  One study points to the largest proportions of falls happening in the evening or at night (59%), in the patient's room or bathroom (85%), and when the patient is unassisted (79%).  While many falls occur while getting out of bed, often times, patients are ambulating at the time of their fall, often unassisted.

Inpatient falls are the largest single category of reported incidences in hospitals.  Since 2008, Medicare and Medicaid have not reimbursed hospitals for injuries associated with an inpatient fall and the trauma associated with it.  The estimated cost for a serious fall-related injury is more than $13,000 and the patient's length of stay increases an average of 6.27 days.  The estimated costs to treat the 30% of falls resulting in serious injury is expected to reach $54.9 billion in 2020.

"Every hospital around the country is focused on fall prevention strategies and technologies for patients as one of the ten patient-safety priorities established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services," stated Robert Grajewski, president of Edison Nation Medical.  "While we can't eliminate every patient fall, there are many opportunities and ideas out there to greatly reduce the number of falls patients experience and endure and we're hoping to capture and help commercialize some of those ideas in order to improve patient safety."    

Joining Edison Nation Medical is free.  Ideas submitted to the organization's confidential and secure online portal cost only $25 to submit and are vetted through an in-depth review process led by a team of medical, product development and legal experts. The end goal is to commercialize each qualified product idea and, when Edison Nation Medical is successful, licensing royalties are shared with the submitting inventor(s).

Inventors are encouraged to submit everything from a back-of-the-envelope sketch to patented and prototyped ideas to currently commercialized products looking to scale.

For more information and to submit an idea, go to www.EdisonNationMedical.com/Falls. 

About Edison Nation Medical:
Edison Nation Medical is a healthcare innovation marketplace with deep expertise in open innovation, product development, and healthcare. Born out of collaboration with Carolinas HealthCare System (the second largest public health system in the United States), Edison Nation Medical's mission is to break down the barriers to healthcare innovation. We make this a reality by providing a clear and easy pathway through our open innovation platform for anyone — physicians, nurses, entrepreneurs, even patients and caregivers — to submit a medical invention idea for full evaluation and potential commercialization.

Edison Nation Medical innovation headquarters is in Charlotte, NC with satellite offices in San Francisco and New York City. For more information, please visit www.EdisonNationMedical.com.

SOURCE Edison Nation Medical