More than 1 in 4 people 65 and older fall each year, leading to more than $50 billion in annual spending for treatment,and on an upward trajectory. Exercise programs are proven to reduce fall risk for older adults, by improving musclestrength, balance, and gait instabilities. Fall prevention programs are encouraged by the CDC, NIA, and many otherorganizations, and are often provided by community-based organizations and other institutions. While fall preventionprograms are an effective intervention, the impact of current programs is mitigated by cost to administer, lack ofscalability, inability to reach underserved populations, lack of encouragement of ongoing usage, and inability to trackadherence and health outcomes in a systematic way. Older adults are typically unaware of proper exercise regimens fortheir specific needs. Currently, the project team believes no fall prevention programs -- either at community centers,other establishments, or at home -- are delivered nationally, affordably delivered, and efficiently administered to broadpopulations that achieve adherence with effective outcomes. KINIMA Inc., is a women-owned company incorporated in2016 and incubated in both University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Venture Initiative Program and Stanford University'sStartX and commercially offered. THE KINIMA Seniors latest offering is a ground-breaking, novel technology that usescomputer vision with no on-body sensors, an innovative side-by-side view through augmented reality guidance withproprietary content, body joint tracking and artificial intelligence, plus multiple forms of feedback to provide a digital2-way comprehensive fall prevention exercise platform.The proposed Phase I study seeks to determine the KINIMASeniors mobile phone motion tracking platform's feasibility, acceptability, and accuracy to support fall prevention incommunity-based settings. To that end, project AIMS are: 1) evaluate KINIMA Seniors acceptability, engagement andcapability for subjects to complete sessions with little or no intervention by human staff; 2) determine specific forms ofcontent that best promote the desired physical movement among the targeted populations, including: guided exercises,movements, video genres, assessments, feedback, gamification and rewards; and 3) determine the effectiveness of theKINIMA technology for automated tracking of participant usage and movement for supporting productive fall preventionactivities with widely accepted fall risk measures. The KINIMA automated assessments will be compared against trackingby a human, which is the approach taken by most clinicians today to assess fall risk. These AIMS support the NIA'smission and research priorities focused on helping senior adults age in place through the use of assistive devices andtechnologies. KINIMA Seniors assistive mobile application will support older adults, caregivers, and therapists inmitigating age-related physical challenges, particularly in fall prevention. Computer vision and augmented reality featuresenable real-time user feedback without wearables or other gear -on-screen visual guide-rails, duration counting, andrepetition tracking; KINIMA automated tracking is done instantaneously and will be measured against tracking by ahuman to assess concordance. KINIMA Seniors has enormous commercial potential, and this Phase I study is a majormilestone along that path to commercialization and allows project overseers to assess user acceptability of the featuresand effectiveness of the automated measures. Phase II will continue with determining the efficacy of the platform inimproving fall risk outcomes through measuring progress over time.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Fall prevention represents a public health priority, afflicting 1 in 4 senior adults at a cost of over $50
billion annually, and leading to declines in quality of life and inability to age in place for many older
adults. Existing fall prevention modalities can be labor intensive, difficult to scale, inaccessible to
certain underserved populations, and difficult to track adherence and outcomes, creating an
opportunity for a technology-enabled fall prevention platform to improve access, adherence, and
ultimately the trifecta of fall prevention: strength, balance, and gait improvement. KINIMA Seniors
provides a mobile assistive technology for fall prevention in older adults, leveraging computer vision,
augmented reality, robust content, automated data collection, and a novel user interface in a
revolutionary cost-effective approach to greatly scale and commercialize this technology-powered
platform for fall prevention activities, with the ultimate goal of improved health outcomes, increased
aging at home with less injuries, enhanced good health and higher quality of later life.
Project Terms: <21+ years old>
