One of the biggest challenges in healthcare today is patient safety—specifically, preventing patient falls. Falls are a major issue across hospitals, leading to injuries, extended stays, and additional costs. Despite well-meaning efforts from clinicians and care teams, the statistics around falls haven’t improved significantly in recent years. Healthcare organizations continue to face high numbers of falls, despite introducing protocols like bed alarms and other safety measures.
In this post, Patrick Baker, CEO of Palarum, LLC, shared his journey into tackling this issue head-on through the development of innovative wearable technology. His solution wasn’t just about adding another “gadget” to the healthcare environment; it was about creating an integrated system that supports clinical workflows and improves patient outcomes.
The Core Challenge: Alarm Fatigue and False Alarms
One of the biggest challenges Baker highlighted was alarm fatigue. Many hospitals rely on bed alarms to alert staff when patients at risk of falling attempt to leave their beds. However, as Baker explained, the reality in most hospitals is that these alarms often trigger too many false alerts, creating distractions for nurses who are already stretched thin. As Baker shared:
"The problem is false alarms and interruptions. Alarm fatigue is real, and it affects how nurses can perform their jobs." (Patrick Baker)
This insight led Baker and his team to rethink the problem. They recognized that while bed alarms work in principle, their over-sensitivity to minor movements causes nurses to turn them off, leading to missed alerts when they are most needed. This issue, combined with staffing shortages and the growing demands placed on nurses, creates an environment where safety protocols are often bypassed out of necessity.
A Smarter Solution: Wearable Technology
With alarm fatigue in mind, Baker’s team at Palarum developed a smart sock—a simple, wearable device that tracks patients' movements more accurately than traditional bed alarms. These socks use conductive yarn and sophisticated sensors to detect when a patient gets up, sending a reliable alert only when needed. This eliminates the flood of false alarms that typically come with other systems.
The goal of this wearable technology is to strike a balance between patient safety and clinical workflow efficiency. Nurses can trust that when an alert is triggered, it’s because the patient is truly at risk of falling, which drastically reduces the frequency of false alarms.
Baker explained:
"We wanted to build a system where nurses could trust the alarms, knowing that they are accurate and that their response time really matters."
Reducing Falls and Improving Outcomes
During clinical trials at Ohio State University, this smart sock system proved to be highly effective. The results were impressive: nurses were able to respond to fall-risk alerts in under 30 seconds, compared to the average response time of 3-8 minutes for traditional call bells. This rapid response capability led to zero falls during the trial period—a remarkable achievement given the national average of 3.5 to 5 falls per 1,000 patient days.
Additionally, the system's smart badge integration (RTLS/RFID) allows hospitals to notify the nearest available staff member when a patient needs assistance, streamlining the response process and ensuring that help arrives quickly.
Emerging Technologies and the Future of Healthcare
The conversation also touched on the role of emerging technologies, such as telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI), and wearable devices, in shaping the future of healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth, but its potential goes far beyond pandemic-related care. According to Troy, telehealth will continue to play a vital role in modern healthcare, especially for patients in remote or underserved areas.
AI and wearable technologies are also poised to revolutionize the way care is delivered. AI, in particular, can provide clinicians with data-driven insights, helping them make more informed decisions about patient care. "The system can make suggestions to a clinician... based on the outcomes of other patients that have that type of cancer," Troy explained, highlighting how AI could transform personalized medicine.
Moving Beyond Fall Prevention
While the primary focus of Palarum’s technology is preventing patient falls, Baker and his team are already looking at the bigger picture—specifically, how this technology can support patient mobility. Post-surgery patients, especially those recovering from major procedures like hip replacements, need to be up and moving regularly to aid their recovery. However, keeping track of their progress—such as how many steps they take or how long they sit in a chair—can be difficult for busy nurses to document.
The smart sock can help bridge this gap by automatically tracking a patient’s activity and feeding that data into the hospital’s electronic medical records (EMR). This offers clinicians a more accurate picture of a patient’s mobility progress, allowing for more personalized care and better outcomes.
Baker shared his vision for this next step:
"The goal is to have data flow into the EMR so clinicians can see trends—like how many steps a patient has taken each day—without needing manual documentation."
This focus on mobility complements the fall prevention technology, providing hospitals with a more comprehensive tool for managing patient safety and recovery.
Design Thinking in Healthcare
What makes this episode of Beyond the Blueprint particularly compelling is how it highlights the power of design thinking in healthcare. Baker’s approach wasn’t just about creating a product—it was about solving a real problem through a thoughtful, systematic process. By going back to the root cause of patient falls and engaging with clinicians, his team was able to design a solution that fits seamlessly into hospital workflows.
Preventing patient falls remains a critical challenge for healthcare organizations, but innovative solutions like the smart sock from Palarum show that real progress is possible. By combining wearable technology with thoughtful system design, Baker’s team has created a tool that not only improves patient safety but also reduces the burden on clinical staff.
As healthcare continues to evolve, it’s clear that design thinking will play an increasingly important role in addressing the complex challenges facing hospitals today. At Beyond the Blueprint, we look forward to continuing these conversations and exploring how healthcare can become better by design.
At Beyond the Blueprint, we believe that good design isn’t just about aesthetics or functionality—it’s about creating systems that are mission-focused, flexible, and responsive to both patient and staff needs. Baker’s smart sock technology is a prime example of this principle in action, showing how design can make a tangible difference in healthcare environments.
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