Patent number 10,897,938 will now protect their safety system until 2038, and it will allow Jay Davenport and his team the peace of mind knowing they can continue to work to help prevent fall-related injuries without fear of having their idea stolen from a competitor. More importantly, it moves them one step closer to being able to prevent tens of thousands of costly falls each year.

“Fall injuries are a serious public health crisis,” Davenport said. “Getting the patent was a lesson in faith and persistence. There were no guarantees when we filed the application, but we felt it would be crucial to the success of the invention.”

A prototype of the SAF-T Vest is in a development through a unique collaboration with the University of St. Thomas’ School of Engineering. Jay’s son Ryan, a 1989 graduate of the University of St. Thomas, is putting his efforts into helping to commercialize the SAF-T Vest.

Fall Prevention System

As we’ve described in previous blogs on the technology, the SAF-T Vest is a wondrous piece of technology that can help catch you in the event of a fall. Instead of working to stop the fall in the first place, the vest is equipped with an array of micro sensors that can detect when a fall is happening in real time. As soon as the vest detects that you’re in the midst of a fall, it triggers the rapid inflation of airbags equipped inside the vest. Then almost as quickly as it inflated, the vest deflates after the initial fall to prevent a potentially painful bounce back phenomenon from occurring.

Preventing even a fraction of yearly falls in the US could save consumers millions of dollars and prevent catastrophic injuries that can lead to the loss of independent living, or worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 300,000 older people are hospitalized for hip fractures each year, and more than 95% of these are due to fall-related injuries. In fact, roughly 25 percent of adults over the age of 65 suffer a fall injury each year.

That’s where the SAF-T Vest comes in. It won’t prevent the fall, but it can prevent the damaging effect the fall tends to have on its victims. Falls cost patients and the healthcare system more than $50 billion each year, and the SAF-T Vest has the potential to severely reduce that number. We’ll keep sharing updates as the product gets closer to mass market, or when exciting news comes along.

Disclosure – Dr. Silverman sits on the advisory board for the SAF-T- Vest.

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