One Call Alert expands its line of personal emergency response systems (PERS) with the debut of ResCube, a fully-mobile wearable device that connects customers to the help they need with just one push of a button, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
ResCube can go anywhere—whether inside a home, around town, or cross country. It operates on the T-Mobile nationwide network like a cell phone, so it doesn’t need to be plugged in to work.
Cambridge, MA - July 15, 2014 - BioSensics is pleased to announce the release of ActivePERS, the only personal emergency response system featuring patented and clinically validated automatic fall detection algorithms combined with step counting and adherence notifications for continuous monitoring of user activity. ActivePERS technology was developed with support from the National Institute of Health (NIH), and in collaboration with University of Arizona Medical School and the Arizona Center on Aging.
I, for one, am tiring of the Apple iWatch. And it is not even out yet. A Morgan Stanley analyst predicts that the $300 iWatch will sell between 30 and 60 million units, but wisely, like the 50-50 chance of rain, also notes 'there is a chance that the iWatch will fail.' Apple is bringing in multiple athletes to test the thing, including an unnamed player from the Red Sox (unnamed is probably for the best, these days.) So who will buy a $300 smart watch, will they leave their iPhone and their iPad home? What will they use to take a picture? Hopefully it will be of good quality and look less awkward than photographers holding up iPads to point and shoot. Though will we hold our wrist up before our eyes and look like we are blocking the sun? Out from our arm and look like we are signaling a left turn?
TAMPA, Fla. – The University of South Florida (USF) has exclusively licensed its Wireless Emergency Reporting System technology, US Patent 8,045,954, to EmergenSee, Inc., a leader in mobile technology that enables users to turn a smartphone or tablet into a personal security system.
PERS devices and wearables – what will bring them together? Now that the Washington Post has declared that Apple and Google will solve our health problems, aren’t you relieved? Oh, you’re a bit concerned about your privacy, the fact that all of your outside-of-Facebook web searches are by default accessible to Facebook – that you have to opt out on a completely separate website in order to terminate tracking of this activity? As you wander around Google, Yahoo or through iTunes, your searches about health topics, those are all now relevant for advertisers as provided by Facebook! And extra-special, what do you think about the fact that Apple lobbied away any need for FDA approval for anything health-related? Feeling safely healthy now?
SAN DIEGO (May 28, 2014) – GreatCall, Inc., the leader in enabling aging consumers and their family caregivers to stay connected, protected and in control of their lives, today introduced enhanced versions of two of its award-winning health & safety devices: the GreatCall Splash with 5Star service and the Jitterbug5. The new features augment the products’ unrivaled simplicity, proven mobility and value to family caregivers.
Checking out startups offerings that can benefit adults -- including older adults. StartUp Health is a New York-based accelerator fostering 'health and wellness innovation.' Its purpose is to help entrepreneurs accepted into its Academy gain "access to customers, capital, resources, and a peer group support network." As many are observing today, if it's useful and technology-based, a startup seems likely to categorize themselves as 'health and wellness'. And some of these health and wellness innovators are specifically targeting aspects of care that can be very helpful to all, but could be particularly useful for older adults. All information comes from the websites of the companies themselves:
Watching PERS and consumer health tech industries is like watching parallel worlds. You have to notice. Although offerings are now mobile, they are not moving closer to consumer health tech. Wander from website to website of the leading players – Philips, Tunstall, ADT, Lifestation, LifeAlert, and so on, in the self-described Medical Alarm industry, regardless of who the company is, services are described and compared in this chart by VRI in the context of the 'emergency' dimension of Personal Emergency Response System/Service. Okay, you’ve looked over the laundry list of companies in the VRI-crafted chart. Now add a few more mobile PERS offerings that aren’t on the chart – like Verizon Sure Response, Tunstall,GreatCall’s Five Star, MobileHelp, AT&T and Numera. Verizon’s site offers 'convenience calling' (that is, minutes that can be used for non-emergencies); Numera’s site mentions a future health aspect of its Libris offering; and AT&T’s site talks about Health. Otherwise, the emphasis is about averting or responding to an emergency.
