CALA News & Views | Issue 56 | Innovative Aging

To remain effective over time, regulatory frameworks must be flexible and technology-neutral, allowing for adaptation as new solutions emerge rather than locking providers into outdated approaches. History has shown the importance of this flexibility with regulations referencing technologies such as CD-ROMs remaining on the books long after those tools had become obsolete. To explore these issues further, CALA spoke with members representing legal, clinical and technology perspectives to discuss the opportunities, challenges and risk management considerations surrounding the use of emerging technologies in senior living. What innovations in technology and AI are emerging to help operators manage risk and prevent high-risk incidents? What might a strong tech-enabled incident-prevention program look like in a few years?

Josh Allen, RN, Allen Flores Consulting Group:

The most transformative development we're seeing is in fall detection and prediction. Ambient sensors, radar and computer-vision systems can now identify a fall in real time – without a resident having to press a button – and route an alert to staff within seconds, which dramatically shortens response times for the incidents that most often lead to hospitalization. prevention: by continuously analyzing gait, mobility, sleep and activity patterns, these systems can flag a rising fall risk days or weeks before an incident occurs, giving care teams a window to intervene. Paired with predictive analytics layered on top of the electronic health records (EHRs), wander and elopement monitoring and smarter medication management, operators finally have the ability to spot the leading indicators of a high-risk event rather than simply reacting to it. Looking a few years out, I'd expect a strong tech enabled incident-prevention program to feel less like a collection of point solutions and more like an integrated early-warning system. Sensor data, resident health records, staffing patterns and environmental factors would feed a single risk model that continuously scores each resident and surfaces the handful who need proactive attention that day. The value won't come from the technology alone – it will come from workflows and staff training that turn those alerts into timely clinical action, along with the governance and documentation practices that keep the program defensible from a regulatory and privacy standpoint. Done well, this lets operators reduce preventable harm, demonstrate a clear standard of care and use limited staff time where it matters most. Just as important, the newer AI-driven tools are shifting the conversation from response to

Liz Jensen, PhD, MSN, RN-BC, August Health:

AI-powered monitoring tools – passive sensor systems, computer vision platforms and wearables – can now detect subtle changes in gait, sleep patterns, behavioral withdrawal and time-in-common-areas days before a fall, hospitalization or behavioral escalation. Providing pattern recognition and context for the patterns provides earlier signals of resident changes. Predictive analytics embedded in EHR platforms is moving care planning from scheduled to trigger-based – flagging changes of condition that warrant reassessment rather than waiting for the quarterly review cycle. As we continue to see providers evolving from using disparate, disconnected technology to living and working within an integrated ecosystem of data and AI agents, the possibility for a stronger tech-enabled incident prevention program becomes a reality. Humans will always be necessary in a caring profession, but effective prevention programs require highly reliable systems for humans to engage with. Senior living communities are highly variable settings that are benefiting from the reliability that technology advances deliver. Examples include the ability to identify and respond automatically to disruptions in resources (e.g., power outages, supply chain disruption, delayed pharmacy delivery) with system redundancies to prevent disruptions in care and service delivery. Embedded AI into EHRs enhance care by helping identify meaningful patterns and what needs to be acted on and communicated by the caregiving team.

I think the future will be less "Swiss cheese" and closer to "Jarlsburg" in the future.

CALA NEWS & VIEWS I ISSUE 56 | AUGUST 2026 6