Medical alarm

Device that summons the presence of medical personnel in an emergency

A medical alarm is an alarm system designed to signal the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention and to summon emergency medical personnel. Other terms for a medical alarm are Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) or medical alert. It is especially important to recognize the need to respond to situations where the person is unable to summon help. Typical systems have a wireless pendant or transmitter that can be activated in an emergency. When the medical alarm is activated, the signal is transmitted to an alarm monitoring company's central station, other emergency agency or other programmed phone numbers. Medical personnel are then dispatched to the site where the alarm was activated. Elderly people and disabled people who live alone commonly use/require medical alarms, and some of them have been victimized by fraudulent marketing.

The concept of home alert systems was conceived and developed in the 1970s. The American implementation was conceived in 1973 by Andrew Dibner, "a psychologist on leave from Boston University who was studying personality in advanced age." established a company in 1974. Named Lifeline Systems Inc., it manufactured all its own equipment, and by 1984 had 225 employees and served "some 42,000 people in 48 states." Hormann's concept of "home alert" (Hausnotruf) with help from AEG Telefunken Backnang GmbH was presented to the international public early in 1980. In 1982 the Hausnotruf PERS system was distinguished with the Frankfurt Innovation Prize of the German Economy by the Wirtschaftsclub Rhein Main e. V. (Rhein Main Business Club) in Frankfurt am Main. A 2012 Swiss estimate reported that around 50,000 emergency call devices were then use.

In the event of an alarm, some systems will place a phone call to a community emergency service such as 911. Others will place a call to the configured number of a friend or family member. Some systems will send an SMS message to configured contacts. Some systems provide 24x7x365 professional monitoring. The monitoring service for medical alarms (central station) is a call center facility that is staffed by trained professionals. These professionals are available at all times to receive calls from the medical alarm system. Monitoring service centers that are approved by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) have internal backup systems to add redundancy. Some monitoring services employ trained medical operators enabling them to better evaluate the severity of medical requests. In most less developed countries however, response to medical alarms are slow.

A Florida State University research team is currently working on an Android device to be worn by the user that not only can be used as a typical medical alert monitoring system but has fall detection software built into it. The system is designed to monitor the user's location, position, and movement in the event a fall occurs. New fall detection technologies are being integrated into watches, pendants, hearing aids, and wall mounted devices that do not need to be worn by an individual.

"I've fallen and I can't get up!" was a catchphrase from a 1989 LifeCall Medical Alert System television commercial. In this commercial, an elderly actor is seen fallen and distraught and uses the medical alert system to summon help. The unintentional humor in the commercial made it a frequent punchline for many comedic acts. Due to the trademark changing hands between competing companies, the trademark currently belongs to LifeCall's direct competitor, Life Alert Emergency Response, and is used in all channels of Life Alert's advertising.