According to the AARP, for the next 18 years, baby boomers in the U.S. will be reaching retirement age at a rate of about 8,000 a day and 90% of these people prefer to live at home in their later years. Since a large percentage of these seniors are not able to reach out for help when an emergency occurs at home, caregivers for senior citizens benefit from passive connectivity to proactively monitor their loved ones’ well being in the home 24 hours/day. QMedic, a Boston, MA company, is developing what it claims to be the first ever passive wearable sensing technology that detects and predicts emergency events in the home, and sends real-time feedback to caregivers when something unusual occurs. This medical alert system warns the caregiver if the user is not wearing the device, fails to get out of bed, or is out of home for extended periods of time.
The QMedic system requires the user to wear a waterproof bracelet which has a large button on the top. Sensors in the bracelet can monitor the senior’s sleeping habits and gauge physical activity. The button on the bracelet can be pressed in case of an emergency around the house, which contacts the base station, which in turn calls the QMedic’s 24/7 emergency call center. A QMedic representative first tries to reach the user through the speakerphone attached to the base station, and if the user is able to convey his or her emergency situation, then the QMedic representative can send out an appropriate emergency response team or contact a family member. If the user is unable to respond, the QMedic representative attempts to reach the user through the home phone line. If there is no response, QMedic calls up the local emergency service to the user’s home.
Product page: QMedic…