Fall. 'Pop.' Air bag. A Montco start-up is out to prevent hip fractures with a high-tech belt (The Inquirer in Philly)
Zane McKinney’s business card says he’s a product specialist. It should also say “stuntman.”
He’s taken 30 to 40 falls so far for the Montgomery County start-up ActiveProtective Technologies Inc. They were hard falls, intended to deploy an air bag contained in the 2½-inch-high belt McKinney wore, the contoured cushion designed to prevent serious injury to his hips once inflated.
For people way older than McKinney, who is 33, success can mean the difference between life and death.
“Our vision as a company is to make hip fractures a preventable condition because it’s the most devastating injury,” said Drew Lakatos, ActiveProtective’s cofounder and chief executive. He cited a 25 percent mortality rate for elderly fall victims within one year of a hip fracture, usually from complications from immobility, such as pneumonia. “We’re protecting your hip because breaking the hip kills you.”
Since its founding in late 2012, ActiveProtective has raised $10.6 million for research and development, secured several patents, and launched two pilot programs: at a senior-care facil...
