Why You Can’t Use a Phone as a Medical Alert System

A medical alert system is a dedicated device, designed for one central purpose: to send an alarm to a first-response entity, at the touch of a large button, or even automatically in the event of the user’s inability to act. It’s tempting to think that, if I have a smart phone with me everywhere I go, why would I need a separate device to summon help? But there are several things to consider that point against this view.

The glaring aspect of any emergency is that it’s usually unexpected, and usually requires immediate response. Smart phones, with their vast array of undeniably useful features, can also be laborious to sift through the menus to get to what you want to do, especially if you’re rattled. If you’re not expecting a dire situation to arise, you probably don’t have your phone primed on a hair-trigger to call for help – that’s assuming you can speak, or know where you are, or know where you phone went in the moment that the emergency happened.

Why a Dedicated Alert System

Dedicated medical alert systems have been around for almost half a century now, and have pioneered the rise of a lot of miniaturized technology that is wearable, in the form of a pendant, a clip-on and now even the wristwatch – see our medical alert smartwatch as an example of elegance and practicality. And the use has grown beyond medical alerts.

The advent of the general class of Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) as lightweight and stylish accessories has extended the use beyond the original elderly for whom the device was initially intended. Increasingly it’s finding use with solo workers such as linemen, delivery drivers and even remote workers, as well as people such as students and especially single women, who want the comfort of an automatic alarm system or a panic button available in the case of personal threat or any other emergency.

The basic use of a dedicated PERS is for the just-in-case situation. Even a young and fit person can slip in the shower, walk into a door or stumble on a street curb. For elderly people or anyone with diminished faculties, the odds of this happening are astronomically higher: 1 in 4 elderly people in the US take a fall each year, for example. A smart phone is usually not going to help in such situations as readily as a PERS that is designed for precisely such an occurrence.

More Reasons Not to Rely on a Phone

The attributes of a smart phone or smartwatch that make it so valuable are the vast array of functions and features that it embodies – and this is also the great disadvantage of a smart phone in dealing with an emergency, namely that it’s not dedicated to that purpose.

There’s no simple and easy panic button to push, nor is there a limited menu. Remember, emergencies are largely unexpected, so if you need to use your phone in a hurry, chances are that you’ll have to use it the way you would in everyday life, which typically means going through a few screens and menu choices. By contrast, a dedicated alert system has one paramount feature, namely to contact help.

Medical alert systems typically have a monitoring center listening for your emergency alert 24 hours a day. Trained operators know how to get information from you and to verify you need help (rather than having triggered an alert by mistake) in a few seconds before alerting first responders to come to your aid. And GPS enabled in the device tells responders exactly where you are.

By contrast, smartphone manufacturers include medical alerts only as one of their features, and they don’t have a monitoring center incorporated into the plan. So your emergency goes directly to a first response center without being screened for error first. One key caution here is that not all emergency centers are equipped with GPS tracking, while a dedicated alert monitoring center will be zeroed-in on the device location immediately.

Many falls happen in the shower or bathtub – the very place you won’t have your phone on your person. By contrast, a medical alert pendant or watch is made to stay with you in the shower. Again, because the medical alert is made for one purpose only, it becomes habit to wear it at all times. Alert pendants and watches are made water-resistant for this very reason.

Even standing up suddenly from sitting a long time can cause dizziness or fainting, a condition known as syncope, which we’ve all experienced. In a more frail person this can be a deadly reaction, and it’s no surprise that one-third of syncope situations result in injury.

Finally, what about misplacing or losing your phone? This is a common occurrence, and in an accident such as even a minor fender-bender in the car, the phone could go flying and be hard to find, or impossible to reach. The medical alert pendant, clip-on or smartwatch doesn’t have the same problem. It stays with you all the time, for the very purpose it was designed for.

For all these reasons, it makes most sense to keep the smart phone in its function as the indispensable miniature computer that we now count on, and to keep the medical alert system separate, and on your person, as intended.