Partnership agreement hopes to help avoid false fall alarms across Nordic hospitals
A new collaborative agreement is hoping to tackle some of the staffing challenges across the Nordic healthcare system by utilising clever fall technology that accurately alerts nurses when a fall has occurred.
Danish AI firm Human Bytes has signed a strategic partnership with Netherlands-based Kepler Vision, which specialises in computer vision technologies for fall detection.
According to Kepler Vision, one of the biggest challenges across the Nordic healthcare is the current and future lack of nurses. The firm highlights that there is a trend where hospitals are built with only single beds instead of two or four bedrooms, which requires nurses to supervise significantly more rooms to monitor the well-being of patients.
In many Nordic healthcare environments, there are no fall detection alarms. This means that when a patient falls, they can stay unattended and in pain for an unnecessarily long time.
Dr Harro Stokman, CEO of Kepler Vision Technologies, commented: “We have a very well established and strong market position in Benelux and Southern Europe, and see the Nordic market as a key area for expansion in the immediate future. Human Bytes is known to be the leading dedicated solution provider of AI to healthcare in the Nordics, why it was an easy choice to engage with them.
“With combining Human Bytes with our Kepler Night Nurse, we hope to contribute to sustain the high level of care that the Nordics is known for, together with better patient outcomes and health economics.”
The Kepler Night Nurse is based on computer vision combined with AI. A simple camera will monitor the patient 24/7 and give an alert if the patient has fallen out of bed, has left the room, not returned from the bathroom, or is awake during the night, so a nurse can help.
The Kepler Night Nurse promises maximum privacy and can integrate easily via a standard API interface into current systems used in the hospitals or nursing homes, according to the firm.
Ulrik Therkildsen, CEO of Human Bytes, added: “Kepler Vision is a strong partner for us, who brings in the most real world data and experience from computer vision. The Kepler Night Nurse AI solution holds great potential, to support nurses at the general ward or in the nursing homes, to avoid false alarms and attend the patients when needed.
“For example in the psychiatry, this AI solution can be of great value to maximise the patient’s recovery through sleep, and not unnecessary disturb them for routine checks in the middle of the night. Most of all I like the simplicity of this solution, that seamless interact with existing systems, with a very mature algorithm that almost eliminates false alarms.”
Dr Harro Stockman has written an exclusive article for AT Today exploring why placing health and care staff at the heart of technology creation for patients is crucial for making solutions that genuinely improve patient outcomes and empower overstretched staff to stay in their roles. Read it here.