The economic impact is also profound. A 2024 analysis estimated $80.0 billion in U.S. healthcare expenditures tied to non-fatal falls in 2020, substantially higher than older estimates and largely borne by Medicare—evidence that prevention is not only humane but fiscally imperative. Globally, the World Health Organization recognizes falls as a major public-health problem, with the highest death rates in adults over 60—context that reinforces why U.S. leadership in prevention matters.
The AngioInstitute’s Fall Prevention & Recovery program—part of its SMARTER AGING project answers this challenge with a comprehensive agenda of awareness, education, and research. This initiative is uniquely positioned to translate cutting-edge diagnostics and rehabilitation science into practical strategies for older adults and their caregivers. As Gina Adams presents today’s program “from the purview of Dr. Robert Bard,” audiences will hear from a clinician-scientist who is both an elder and a prolific publisher on aging-related technologies—from diagnostic ultrasound (including elastography for thyroid/autoimmune contributors to weakness) to non-pharmacologic modalities that support strength, balance, and pain reduction.
Crucially, the evidence base supports action. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes with moderate certainty that exercise interventions (e.g., strength, balance, and gait training) provide a moderate net benefit in preventing falls among community-dwelling older adults at increased risk; multifactorial programs (combining clinical review, home-safety modifications, and tailored therapy) provide a smaller but meaningful benefit. These findings align with the AngioInstitute’s integrated model—one that pairs evidence-based movement with risk screening, sensory and vision assessment, environmental modification, and targeted technologies to restore confidence and independence.
Put simply: falls are common, costly, and preventable. By elevating lived experience, rigorous diagnostics, and validated interventions, the AngioInstitute’s SMARTER AGING program—guided in part by Dr. Bard’s clinical lens and Gina Adams’ public-health voice—aims to bend the curve on injuries, hospitalizations, and avoidable loss of independence. Today’s session is an invitation to act on what we already know works, and to accelerate research that will make prevention even smarter tomorrow.
When Gina Adams asked what inspired his scientific pursuit of fall
prevention, Dr. Robert Bard began with the story that shaped his life. At four
years old, he was hospitalized with polio for nine months and told he might
never walk again. “I was given hydrotherapy,” he recalled, “and nine or ten
months after being told I’d be paralyzed, I started walking.” Years later, as
an active ballroom dancer, he began to lose balance—“it kept on getting
progressively worse.” That decline made the danger tangible: “If you don’t have balance, you fall. And if you
fall, you get hurt. People die from falls.”
The Problem and the Mindset
Bard
emphasized that prevention begins not in the body but in the mind. “The first
thing you learn after you fall is don’t let it paralyze you,” he said. Fear of
falling, he explained, restricts movement, fuels depression, and creates a
downward spiral: “When you’re depressed, you
do less, you get weaker, and you fall more. When you’re active and have
purpose, you fall less because you’re motivated to be alive.”
Sensory and Neurological Awareness
Asked
what individuals and families can do, Bard broadened the focus beyond muscles.
Balance, he said, depends on the body’s sensory systems—vision, hearing, and
even smell. He cited work at the
Caregivers, he advised, should check vision, hearing, and vestibular function
early. He warned that internal causes such as autoimmune or thyroid disease may
quietly erode strength and equilibrium: “The
thyroid is the master gland. Autoimmune thyroid disease causes weakness
throughout the body, yet routine lab tests often miss it. But ultrasound
elastography can see the fibrosis forming long before symptoms appear.”
Movement,
Core Strength, and “Muscle Memory”
When
asked about everyday prevention, Bard offered a simple prescription: movement.
“Keep active and keep moving no matter what. Your muscles stay alive, and so
does your mind.” He urged patients to train the core muscles that protect the
skull during backward falls: “If you fall
back, what keeps your head off the concrete is your core.”
He encouraged older adults to “practice using the heels” when standing,
engaging the gluteal muscles rather than pushing with the arms: “Lean forward
on the heels—boom, you’re up.” Strength in the upper body also matters, he
said, because “you need your arms and shoulders to keep you erect if something
happens.”
Technological and Therapeutic
Advances
Responding
to questions about modern tools, Bard described new bio-energy systems that combine near-infrared
light and pulsed-electromagnetic
fields (PEMF) to rebuild tissue. “These technologies regenerate
muscle, decrease pain, and even restore cartilage,” he said. “They’ve been used
for decades on knees; now we’re using them on hips and other joints.” Pain
reduction, he added, enables patients to exercise effectively, breaking the
cycle of weakness.
Foot Drop and Simple Clinical
Checks
Bard
highlighted one overlooked cause of falling—foot
drop. He urged clinicians to “watch patients walk, watch them
get out of a chair.” When the forefoot strikes before the heel, balance is
lost: “You go sliding forward and fall.” He noted that braces, shoe
modifications, and physical-therapy cues can correct the pattern. “Practice
heel landing,” he said. “It engages new muscles and restores stability.”
Integrative Medicine and Recovery
In
rehabilitation, Bard sees promise in uniting conventional and integrative care.
“The body functions as a whole—the eyes, the hormone system, the immune
system,” he said. Beyond physical therapy, he advocates detoxification
programs, herbal support, chiropractic adjustments, and acupuncture. “When
medicine finishes with you because the MRI looks normal, the body isn’t
finished—it’s still out of balance,” he cautioned. Real healing, he believes,
requires aligning all systems that influence equilibrium.
Conclusion
Dr. Bard’s lived experience and clinical insight converge on a simple credo: move, strengthen, sense, and integrate. Fall prevention, he insists, is not merely about rails and walkers—it’s about cultivating awareness, restoring the body’s feedback loops, and embracing technologies and therapies that keep muscles and minds alive. “Keep moving,” he said. “That’s the important message—movement is medicine.”
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(2024, May 9). Facts about falls. CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(2024, Oct 28). Older adult falls data. CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(2024, May 16). About older adult fall prevention.
CDC
Haddad, Y. K., et al. (2024). Healthcare
spending for non-fatal falls among older adults, 2020. Journal article (PubMed). PubMed
World Health Organization. (2021, Apr 26). Falls: Fact sheet. World Health
Organization
