Medical Alert Update: 2025
Overview of the Field.
Since we first started evaluating medical alert products back in 2015, the field has generally been rather slow moving, with little changing from year to year. However, in 2023 there were some notable developments, which we summarized a year ago in an update for 2024. A year has passed, and so: ….
This post is the update for 2025 on what’s new in the field of medical alert devices.
Some of you already know a lot about medical alerts. For those people, please focus on the “New Developments” section and the “Round Up” section.
For those who have not spent much time in the past learning about medical alerts and what differentiates one from the other, we summarize where to learn the basics in the section below (How to Learn the Basics), pointing you to various articles and talks on the Tech-enhanced Life website including a tutorial talk by Dr. Caro.
Medical Alerts: How to Learn the Basics
As part of a seminar series in 2022, Richard Caro gave a talk entitled “Medical Alert Systems: How to Choose”.
If you are new to this topic, that talk is a good place to start. You can find it at the link below. You can also find there a simple written tutorial defining some of the key features and terms.
Listen to the talk and read the tutorial: About Medical Alert Systems: Learning Module.
The tutorial covers some of the key points — such as the difference between “at home” systems; “on the go / mobile” systems, and “smartwatches as medical alerts”.
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New Developments for 2025
There are not a lot of big new developments relating to medical alerts since our update last year, when there were indeed some big things that had happened. But a number of products have made useful feature set improvements.
For this update, we decided it made sense to give a sort of overview of how we see the field. So, …
This post summarizes the medical alert device field as of Feb 2025.
Medical Alert Device Roundup
Medical Alerts have moved on from the days of the “Help, I’ve Fallen and Can’t Get Up” commercial.
Today, the conventional pendants with big buttons you press for help still exist, and make sense for a certain type of person.
But, in addition, there are now a variety of additional product types that meet the needs of some consumers for more modern, less stigmatizing, solutions to “calling for help in an emergency”.
Form Factor
One of the biggest “decisions” for a consumer in this field is the “form factor” that will best suit them, and which they are most likely to wear.
Will I wear an ugly pendant?
How do I feel about wearing a smart watch?
Functionality
Another very important dimension is the functionality of the device — beyond just “summoning help”.
Do I want something with lots of “other” features, or do I want to focus on the simplest, least error prone solution for getting help?
By titling this post “medical alerts”, it’s clear we are talking about products that can be used to summon help. And for some of the products, that is really all they do.
But, increasingly, some of these products come with a range of other capabilities — ranging from telling you the weather, to connecting you with a whole team to answer random questions on any topic you need help with.
But, increasingly, some of these products come with a range of other capabilities — ranging from telling you the weather, to connecting you with a whole team to answer random questions on any topic you need help with.
Here is a roundup of the different types of products in this field, and some things to note that are different from the past. The idea in this post is to summarize things, and also point you to places where you can dig deeper if you want.
Conventional Pendants & Wrist-worn Alerts Still Fine
The conventional medical alerts look like a blob of plastic with a big button. Sometimes they are worn as a pendant around the neck, or sometimes as wrist bands, or clips on your belt.
Every year they get a bit smaller and lighter, which is good. But the basic idea has not changed much for a long time.
To learn more about these, and the subcategories (such as ones that only work “at home”, vs those that work at home as well as “out and about”), we refer you to the tutorial and lecture on Tech-enhanced Life’s website.
A downside of this conventional approach to calling for help is that many older adults feel these products are ugly and stigmatizing — which has led to the emergence of some of the alternatives below.
The positive aspect of this traditional type of medical alert is it maximizes simplicity of use (one big, very noticeable, button). And, for some subcategories of these conventional medical alerts, there are other simplicity advantages — such as very long battery life (eg a year or more).
Overall, we find that the more frail and infirm a person is, the more likely it is that these types of medical alert will be the right choice.
Overall, we find that the more frail and infirm a person is, the more likely it is that these types of medical alert will be the right choice.
Smartwatches Very Important
Starting in 2018 or so, we noticed that some of the more adventurous Longevity Explorers liked the idea of using a smartwatch to provide the “calling for help” function that would have traditionally required them to wear a medical alert.
Since then the “smartwatch as medical alert” category has become increasingly important, and the products have improved significantly. Today, we feel they offer a very viable alternative to conventional medical alerts — especially for people who are comfortable with a little more complexity, and things like remembering to charge the product each night.
Our 2024 Medical Alert Update covered some of the individual products in this category in more detail. The big development in 2023 was that most of the smartwatches added the functionality of automatic fall detection, which we think was an extremely important step forward.
Here is how we see this category of product as of May 2025.
Simple vs Complex
At the risk of over simplifying, we see two types of personas who are interested in a smartwatch as medical alert.
Persona 1:
I want a smartwatch anyway, because I value some of the other features I get with such a product. For example (depends on the individual) weather, step counting, telling the time, sending text messages, and more.
Persona 2:
I have no interest at all in all those other smartwatch features. But I really like the idea that this is a stylish watch, and not an “old person’s” product.
Overlaid on these two personas is the question of whether a specific individual can or can not handle a bit of additional complexity of use, or whether the product needs to be as simple as possible to use.
Lining up with the above framing, the industry has responded with two types of products in the smartwatch as medical alert category.
Complex
There are relatively complex products like the Apple Watch, and smartwatches from Google and Samsung.
These products are extremely powerful, and many people find them really useful for all sorts of things. It’s as if you get “calling for help” thrown in as an extra. And it does not hurt that people of all ages wear such products, and they can be seen as very “with the times”.
Simple
But, there are some people who find it a bit annoying or confusing to have all those other capabilities, and don’t really value the extra functionality. And they prefer not to have to hunt around to find the right button to press if there is an emergency.
So, there have emerged a variety of “simple” smartwatches — that also provide medical alert functionality. These have been pioneered by companies like Theora Care and Unaliwear, and traditional medical alert vendors like Medical Guardian and Bay Alarm Medical also offer these products today.
Now that all / most of these products come with fall detection, we sometimes refer to this category as “fall detection watches”.
Which Features You Want is Important
Given the above overview, it seems obvious perhaps that the exact feature set that would be useful to you, is an important differentiator in choosing a specific product. Because the exact feature set in the various “simple smartwatches” varies between vendors.
Who is Responder?
Another subtlety that is not always appreciated, and which differs between these products, is the question of what exactly happens when you press the button to call for help.
Depending on the product, when you press the button it may call either (a) 911 (eg the Apple Watch; or (b) a special purpose call center, that can call 911 if needed (most traditional medical alerts); or (c) a friend or friends you have identified as the person to call.
There is not a right or wrong answer to which of these is best, and the answer depends a bit on your specific circumstance. The costs differ between these approaches also.
If you need help thinking this through for yourself, you are welcome to ask questions (Chat).
Dig Deeper into Smartwatches as Medical Alerts
To read more about this category (and how to pick one for someone), see this article: “Best Fall Detection Watches” on Tech-enhanced Life.
Fall Detection is Table Stakes
One thing that has changed over the time we have been covering medical alerts is the importance of a fall detection algorithm.
As of 2025, many / most of the medical alerts of all types come with the option of including an automatic fall detection capability.
What this means is that, in addition to having a button you can press for help if you want to, the product itself can “sense” when you fall, and will call for help automatically if it decides you have fallen and are not responding.
This used to be seen as a sort of “extra frill”. In our opinion, this is an extremely useful feature, and products without this capability typically score poorly in our evaluations.
Vendors Noticed People Don’t Like Ugly Devices
One thing you realize, as you surf the websites of medical alert vendors in 2025, is that some of them have finally realized that stigma and ugliness are not positives.
Unfortunately, this has not led to a host of elegant new stylish medical alerts (beyond the smartwatches above). But it has led to a few things worth calling out.
The “skins”
We have seen a few examples of “skins” that can go over a conventional medical alert to make it look a bit better, and more like a piece of jewelry. For example, Bay Alarm Medical has something called “Bella Charms”.
The brooch
And then there is the approach taken by startup Trelawear, in which they created a “jewelry inspired” medical alert pendant (see Trelawear website here).
[One thing to note about this product is that it does require you to have a smartphone on you or near to you in order to call for help.]
Various Ideas for “Homes that Notice if You Fall”
A trend we are noticing is startups deciding that what people need is not something they wear that calls for help. But rather a home that somehow “notices you have fallen” without you wearing anything, and which then automatically calls for help.
There have been a number of products that have come to market of this type, and more under development. They use various different sensor technologies.
We are not going into detail about this category of product in this post. Feel free to ask questions if you want to know more.
Adding More Intelligence & Other Features
Extra Services
A development that we think is quite important, is the idea that by pressing a button, you can access all sorts of services beyond just “calling for help”.
The first example we saw of this, a number of years ago, was by GreatCall, which is now called Lively (owned by Best Buy). Other companies are now following this example, but thus far it has not become widespread.
The idea is that you are encouraged to press the button any time you “need something” — and not just when you need an ambulance. Think of it as an on-demand concierge.
The idea is that you are encouraged to press the button any time you “need something” — and not just when you need an ambulance. Think of it as an on-demand concierge.
Examples of these “extra services” include: your car broke down and you need someone to get roadside assistance for you; you have health issues and need to talk with a nurse; you need help with some type of “care issue” and want advice; you need someone to call you a ride; and more.
Of course there is an extra fee for these extra services. But you can imagine some of these services being ultimately provided by an AI. Makes you think.
Wandering; Caregiver Tracking
Some of the medical alerts include an app that you can give to a family member or caregiver, and which enables the family member / caregiver to see where the wearer of the device is at any time.
There are circumstances (eg dementia and wandering) where this can be very useful. The better products include other details like geofencing, that can make this capability more powerful.
If this seems relevant to your specific use case, then be aware that only some of the products have these features, and shop accordingly. And be sure to ask who can turn this feature on or off.
Phones as Medical Alerts (ie Apps)
One thing we do sometimes hear during Longevity Explorer discussions is:
“I already have a smartphone and take it everywhere. Why can’t that do the job?”
Well, the answer is that the phone can do the job of a medical alert, but with some caveats.
First, you do need to have it available at all times, or of course it will not help.
Second, if you fall and are conscious and can make a phone call, then maybe all you need is your phone.
Third, you can add an app to the phone that makes it act very much like a medical alert. Two companies we are aware of that have these apps are: FallCall and Lively.
The main issue to be aware of is that they are only really effective if you have the phone on you.
Dig Deeper. Plus Chat for Answering Qs.
Hopefully this gives you an overview of the medical device space as of early 2025. However, it is just an overview.
To dig deeper:
There is a whole section on the Tech-enhanced Life website on this topic, including detailed reviews of some individual products, and some “Best of Breed” articles. Start here: Medical Alert Selection Guide.
The website above is no longer where we publish our latest research and opinions. We do that here in this newsletter. So, you can dig deeper using the link above, but be aware that for annual updates, you want to subscribe to this newsletter.
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Disclosures and Notes
We do not get paid to review these products or to write about them.
The Tech-enhanced Life website does include some affiliate links, so if you end up buying products using those links, Longevity Explorers LLC gets a (modest) financial benefit. However there are no such affiliate links in this email / post.
The focus here is on products available for US consumers. There are some other products available in other geographies (e.g. the EU and Asia), but we do not cover them here.