'iShoe' uses NASA tech to help prevent elderly falls

BOSTON -- Scientists working to help astronauts regain balance after extended flights in zero gravity say they've found a way to use the research to help elderly people avoid catastrophic falls.

An "iShoe" insole contains sensors that read how well a person is balancing. The point is to gather information for doctors and to get people to a specialist — before they fall.

Erez Lieberman, a graduate student who developed the technology while working as an intern at NASA, says a damaging fall is preceded by numerous warnings, similar to how high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure point to a coming heart attack.

"You gradually get worse and worse at balancing," said Lieberman, who studies in a joint Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology health science and technology program. "If you know the problem is there, you can start addressing the problem."

The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates 300,000 people annually suffer hip fractures, which are often caused by falls. An average of 24% of hip fracture patients age 50 and over die within a year of the fracture.

Many fall victims who don't die within a year end up being disabled the rest of their lives.

"It's a huge issue," said Elinor Ginzler of the AARP. "It significantly impairs your ability to stay independent, which is what people want."

The idea for the iShoe came to Lieberman while he was working at NASA last summer on a project to help astronauts regain balance after months in zero gravity. The work is part of preparations for long space missions, such as trips to Mars, that require astronauts to perform complicated tasks on the terrain soon after landing.

The balance research seemed to Lieberman to have obvious earthly applications for the elderly.

He and Katharine Forth, a visiting scientist at NASA who also works on the iShoe, had been touched personally by the issue of elderly falls, with each seeing a grandmother's health rapidly deteriorate after such an accident.

"It was something that has kind of been on my mind in general, and once I started looking at balance it became very clear it would have applications in that direction," Lieberman said.