Include radar-based fall detection in your care solution

Falls are the biggest threat to older adults living at home. If help isn’t provided quickly, the results can be catastrophic. Even without suffering injury, if a person remains on the floor or over an hour, there’s a 50% chance that they’ll pass away with six months.

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Why standard fall detection tech fails to deliver

While there are numerous fall alert solutions on the market, most have inherent limitations. Wall-mounted emergency buttons and cords are useful only if they’re within reach and if the user is in a fit state to operate them. Wearable solutions such as pendants and fall detection watches are widely underused. Many people forget to put them on, while others refuse, seeing them as an embarrassment. Video cameras and acoustic monitoring systems also have drawbacks: most older adults are hesitant to install such solutions in their homes out of valid privacy concerns.

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Redefining fall detection with radar

These issues are why a growing number of home care system providers are turning to passive, touchless monitoring enabled by 4D imaging radar. This leading-edge technology offers the optimal balance between the visibility care providers need and the privacy that care users demand. It detects falls in any lighting conditions, dense steam, and even through materials such as shower curtains, making it ideal for use in bathrooms where 80% of falls happen.

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Onics & Vayyar Care: a powerful partnership

Home care solution providers can now include instant, automatic fall detection in their offerings. Onics has integrated Vayyar Care with its Squid.link gateways, flexible white-label gateways that support multiple wireless connectivity options for communication with devices such as sensors, alarms, smart plugs, smart meters, and thermostats. In an emergency, the data collected by Vayyar Care is sent to the Squid.link gateways, which notify relatives or care professionals via an application, or alert an alarm-receiving center to summon help.

Vayyar Care also gathers a wealth of additional data on care users’ activity and behavior, which can be used as the basis for personalized care planning and fall risk mitigation. For example, disturbed sleep and increased bathroom usage are both known fall risk factors.

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“Integration with Onics’ offering will enable us to advance our mission of delivering the very best protection to older adults, regardless of technical prerequisites such as the availability of a Wi-Fi connection or the installation of an additional Wi-Fi-LTE modem,” said Gonzalo Ugalde, Nordic Sales Manager at Vayyar Care. “With more people opting to age in place, and in light of various governments’ ambitious goals for home care delivery, this partnership has the potential to drive a step change in predictive care in the coming years.”

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Rapid deployment

Each ceiling-mounted Vayyar Care sensor connects via dry contact with any existing hardware. Deployed by hundreds of care home groups around the world and by a rapidly growing number of UK social care providers, the solution is fully interoperable with all distributed alarm systems and care platforms. The partnership with Onics enables home care system providers to offer radar-based fall detection without having to invest in a lengthy integration process.

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Reliable communication and secure data storage

Onics' Squid.link gateways are secure and reliable white label devices that are ideal for care solutions. The gateways are highly flexible and can support different wireless protocols for the integration of additional sensors or third-party care devices.

Built on an open Linux platform with Java and OSGI support, the gateways support a wide range of communication options including Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Wireless M-Bus, Bluetooth Low Energy, and cellular connectivity.

They also come with several security features that keep sensitive user data private. Thanks to edge-computing functionality, data can be processed directly on the gateway, ensuring privacy and reducing latency.

The Squid.link gateways can also have an integrated SIM card for LTE connection. This way, the gateway, and Vayyar Care can share the same LTE connection, without the need to install an additional modem.

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Your best foot forward

With Vayyar Care as part of your home care solution, you’ll be able to provide robust, reliable fall detection without relying on buttons, cords, wearables, microphones, or cameras. It’s the key not only to exceptional safety but also to the privacy and independence that’s at the heart of person-centered care.

Are you interested in including radar-based fall detection in your home care solution?

Contact us for more information