Kinesis Health Technologies Launches Mobility and Falls Risk Assessment Product
- Potential to reduce falls in older adults by up to 40%
Dublin, Ireland, 28 August 2014
Kinesis Health Technologies Ltd (www.kinesis.ie), a new University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out company, today announced the international market launch of its first product, Kinesis QTUG™, aiming to reduce incidences of falls in older adults.
Kinesis QTUGTM combines advanced technology, including body-worn sensors, with the industry standard Timed Up and Go procedure into a solution that will be used by healthcare professionals to assess falls risk and mobility impairment in older adults.
Kinesis QTUG™ introduces ‘quantitative’ objective data to help improve outcomes.
Falls in the elderly are a major problem worldwide, with an estimated 30% of elderly adults over 65 years of age falling each year. Incidence rates in hospitals are higher, and in long-term care settings approximately 30–50% of people fall each year, with 40% falling recurrently. In the US alone, the cost of falls has been estimated to be in the region of US $30 billion per annum.
Kinesis QTUG™ has the potential to significantly advance the field of falls prevention, by improving the methods used for mobility and falls risk assessment in older adults. It may also be used to facilitate early and targeted intervention, which has been shown to reduce falls in older people by up to 40%.
Speaking at the product launch, Seamus Small, Kinesis’ co-founder and CEO said, “Falls are a global problem. We are delighted to have completed the product development of Kinesis QTUG™ and bring our product to market. The feedback we have received from customer trials has been extremely positive and we are excited about the worldwide potential of this product.”
Kinesis QTUG™, which has been scientifically validated and has been shown to be more accurate than traditional methods in assessing risk of falls, is a Class I medical device and is now available for sale in Ireland, the UK, the United States and Canada.
Kinesis is spin-out company which has emerged from research performed at the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre, a large ageing research and health technology centre established in 2007, and based at UCD.
In 2013 Kinesis was the overall winner of the UCD Venture Launch Accelerator Programme Award and the company is a client at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs.
Brendan Cremen, UCD Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation said, “Kinesis Health Technologies is an excellent example of a UCD spin-out company established to commercialise world-class research which has taken place at the University. Kinesis is now set to a make significant impact in addressing a major worldwide problem in the health industry, in the area of mobility and falls risk assessment in the elderly, and it has significant global potential and global customers.”
He added, “I would like to congratulate the Kinesis team on launching its first product and I wish them every commercial success for the future.”
Kinesis expects to announce major commercial partnerships with a number of companies on the product supply and distribution in the coming weeks.