There are several existing threads on medical alert devices but they’re old, and anyway my question here is more specific.
I was strongly leaning toward the watch style, but I haven’t made a final decision yet. Both types that I’ve been looking at are cellular-enabled, don’t need a phone connection and can operate anywhere there’s cellular service. Both have two-way voice communication and automatic fall detection.
Pendant: You wear it around your neck. Should be worn outside normal indoor clothing. Seems to me like a constant dangling nuisance. If I decide to flout the recommendations and wear it inside my shirt, I mostly wear T-shirt and sweatshirt style shirts with no buttons, so getting access to the device could be a challenge. I suppose I could manage to pull it out the top of the shirt by the lanyard.
Watch: More elegant and less conspicuous. Has more features, like heart rate monitoring. The small size may make it harder to operate, and it probably has shorter battery life than the pendant style. But I could wear it like just an ordinary watch, like I used to do in the Olden Dayes of Yore. It’s less like an Olde Fart accessory and more like a high tech smart watch.
Opinions?
The provider we’re looking at in Canada is Lifeline.
How many years did you work wearing an ID badge / key card on a neck lanyard?
For me the answer was zero. I had an ID badge clipped to my shirt or suitcoat for 30+ years. I never wore a lanyard; IMO they look stupid, and are inconvenient as hell. Fully 75% of my cow-orkers thought otherwise and wore the same badge on a lanyard all those years.
My bottom line is get the device you’ll actually wear. Which sounds like the watch. Net of the charging issues; it needs to be on your body 24/7/365.
tl;dr:
The objective pros and cons of the two types of devices are as nothing versus the subjective “Can / Will you wear it 24/7/365?”
Interesting observation. The last organization I worked with that was concerned with high security issued badges with little alligator-type clips. You could clip them onto whatever you wanted – as long as security staff could see them, it was fine. I never saw anyone wearing it on a lanyard.
I agree with this. I think the watch represents new tech that didn’t exist merely a few years ago.
From what I’ve read, the Lifeline lanyards are designed to break under fairly minimal stress.
Apparently with any of the more advanced models rated as waterproof. The current watch is rated shower-safe with an IEC IPX7 rating, which means it can withstand immersion in up to 1 metre of water pressure for up to 30 minutes.
It is and that dangling and subsequent bumping against things ends up causing a lot of false alerts. I wore one for about a year until my emergency contact asked to be removed because he got so many false alarms. They are touchy, touchy things those pendants. You will also accidentally trigger too many very intrusive responses through the pendant, usually at the most in opportune time. Plus there is the hefty monthly subscription fee. I canceled mine and stuck it in a drawer. If that dresser ever falls over and can’t get up it’ll be all set.
Now I have a basic Apple Watch with fall detection and the ability to call for help, plus the heart rate stuff, etc. Yes, it needs charging daily but I do that next to the bed and put it back on before I get up. It looks hip and cool unlike the pendant which is almost a sight gag for that commercial. Plus it tells time and probably ninety other things I don’t know how to do.
My wife is T1D. Type 1 Diabetic. She went with the smart watch and is very happy with it. I am very happy too. She always wears it and it’s always handy for her. She gets her BG readings on it (blood glucose), and her watch is tethered to her phone and then I too get her BG readings on my phone. It’s a great system that works extremely well for us, and it has saved her and us on at least 2 occasions. (Those are longer stories; pretty sure I’ve shared them here on the SDMB)
This. Very much this.
I vote watch, but OP it’s really up to you and what will work best for you.
The watch for sure and an Apple Watch 6 used can be as low as $100 US.
The big thing tho is the myriad of other uses the watch has.
You do have to pair it with an Apple iPhone which brings another bevy of uses and again are relatively inexpensive used…I bought a iPhone 13 mini for $100 Aus with just a small crack in the front screen ( easily repaired ).
I bought mine for the fall detection which I’m not sure my V6 is particularly good at but it keeps me alert to sleep and heart issues and works with Alexa for reminders and alarms. Oddly enough by checking my heart rate I can instantly tell if I forgot my morning pills. My resting heart beat goes to 85-90 instead of 75ish.
The built in torch easily summoned by voice on the watch is more than adequate to midnight bathroom jaunts and keeps hands free. It is perfectly fine in the shower. I keep a couple of charge points around the house, one in the bedroom and one near the couch, I charge while actually wearing the watch most times and it is quick.
Might have saved my life by alerting me to a tachycardia event ( 140 bpm when riding relaxed on the mcycle - should have been 80-90. That led to fairly extensive heart tests and a drug ( beta blocker ) which in the end gave my heart an ALL WELL report including clear arteries. I’m 79 and that was a VERY welcome report.
Get an Apple watch for all the things it can do far beyond your asks.
Good point. Question for @wolfpup : When you have worn a necktie, how many times has your necktie fallen onto your desk, the table you sit down at, or otherwise got away somehow? It’s easy to control if you’re wearing a suit- or sportcoat or a sweater, but we’re not always wearing those things. But we are wearing a tie, and sometimes, it gets in the way. It seems to me that a pendant would present the same kind of challenge.
A watch, however, never gets in the way if you are used to one. I still say go with the watch.
It’s been so long since I’ve worn a tie that I can’t really answer that.. However, a tie is a light piece of fabric that is also longer than a pendant so if I’m hunched over a desk the end is likely to be below desk level. Also, the pendant not only hangs higher but is more like a tie with a weight on the end of it, so not really a good analogy.
I asked ChatGPT to search the internet for info about Lifeline and its devices. The short version of its lengthy report is Lifeline monitoring services are excellent and they’re an old and established company. Customer service, billing issues, etc are mixed with some complaints.
Regarding devices, the smartwatch is apparently the best performing device, but in controlled testing the automatic functions were imperfect. “Simulated falls” detected and “GPS locations correctly identified” rate only 2 out of 3. But in direct voice communication, audio quality was judged excellent, ease of use good, and the battery normally lasts several days. During the testing, there was one dropped call, but it was followed by an immediate callback from the monitoring center.
Just for S&G, I may wear my tie bearing kittens wrestling to the racetrack tomorrow. It’s fun, it’s unique, it’s making me yet another of the track’s characters that I am definitely one of.
“See the guy wearing his glasses on his nose, and wearing a tie with kittens? Yeah, that’s the guy you wanna talk to about the fifth race.”
Hey, I publish a tip sheet that includes the fifth race. Talk to me!
(Actually, don’t. Because while I publish a tip sheet for Lethbridge racing, it’s in my car, ready for tomorrow’s races, and I don’t feel like going out to the car at this hour: 0348 MDT.)
Jeez, I gotta get some sleep if I am to make a 1315 post on Saturday! Good night, all!
There may be a complete change of course here, and thanks to those who mentioned the Apple Watch. The independently cellular enabled Apple Watch SE 3 may be a much cheaper alternative to the Lifeline watch. It doesn’t depend on my cell phone, is equally waterproof, and has various health and emergency features as well, including fall detection, the ability to call a designated responder, and of course the ability to call 911.
I endorse the smart watch. My mom had a lifeline pendant, and it was kinda a scam. Expensive subscription, and you can’t cancel it when the owner dies until you find the device and mail it back to them.
She had extremely fragile skin, and couldn’t have worn a watch. The pendant was maybe okay for her. But i think for most people a watch is a better form factor. And the regular consumer version (like an apple watch) is probably a better deal than lifeline.
(We didn’t get any false alarms, fwiw. Maybe my mom didn’t wear it except when we visited. She got it because her kids asked her to, not because she wanted it.)
My resting heart beat goes to 85-90 instead of 75ish.
