A veteran nurse just received a U.S. patent to prevent a major source of injuries - hospital falls. But her invention is one of many there.
"I never thought of myself as an inventor," remarks Barbara Wadsworth, Main Line Health's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
But Wadsworth has also been a nurse for nearly 40 years and knows the devastating toll of falls by patients in medical facilities.
"They might get a head bleed or a laceration," she says. "For patients who are 65 and older, if they fall and break a hip, their mortality in 12 months is 50%."
Half the falls are in bathrooms, where, to keep their privacy, patients may refuse help by staffers.
"It's moveable, it's on wheels, it should be easy to navigate into the bathroom," Wadsworth says, explaining her invention.
To give patients safety AND privacy, she and engineers at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research created a device with an airbag within it.
It would go in front of the patient at the toilet. If a sensor detects someone standing up: "It'll be calibrated so if they fall forward, the airbag would deploy," says Wadsworth.
Drawings in the patent show how it would break a fall.
Wadsworth and the engineers revised the design again and again before submitting it to the Patent Office. After nearly 2 years, the patent came.
"Which is very exciting and super cool," she says.
And she isn't the only patent holder in the Main Line Health ranks.
Colleen Rogers, a nurse at Bryn Mawr Rehab, invented an adjustable-height limb lift, which helps nurses change dressings.
"You can just place the limb, and dress whatever part of the limb you need," Wadsworth explains in demonstrating how the limb lift works.
Nurses at Lankenau Medical Center have received patents on several other devices, including a bathroom privacy screen and a helper for nurses inserting bladder catheter in female patients.
And there are even more inventions in the pipeline.
"It does speak to our willingness and our interest to listen to and hear people," Wadsworth says of the bounty of new inventions.
Main Line Health is now looking for partners to invest in the fall prevention device.
With these inventions on or coming onto the market, it will help medical professionals and patients everywhere.