New Freedom through Medical Devices Based on the Global System for Mobile Communications: A Prospective Survey of 620 Users of the Swiss Limmex Emergency Wristwatch—An Original Study from Switzerland

About 500,000 elderly people in Switzerland suffer a fall each year. Thus medical attention and help are essential for these people, who mostly live alone without a caregiver. Only 3% of people aged over 65 in Switzerland use an emergency system. Personal telehealth devices allow patients to receive enough information about the appropriate treatment, as well as followup with their doctors and reports of any emergency, in the absence of any caregiver. This increases their quality of life in a cost-effective fashion. “Limmex”—a new medical emergency watch—was launched in Switzerland in 2011 and has been a great commercial success. In this paper, we give a brief review of this watch technology, along with the results of a survey of 620？users conducted by the Department of Emergency Medicine in Bern. 1. Introduction As a consequence of several demographic and social factors, the proportion of people living alone has been continuously increasing in recent decades. In urban areas such as the Bern region, about 50% of retired people live alone in single person households. The number of elderly people is increasing in Switzerland (1.4 million over 65 years), and for the great majority of these, it is very important to be able to live independently at home for as long as possible. Consequently, it is crucial that these elderly people should receive prompt medical attention and help when an emergency occurs. Studies have shown that when the elderly fall they are out of reach of the fixed-line network or a mobile phone. This is why it is important to wear an emergency system on the wrist or round the neck. Personal telehealth devices allow patients to receive enough information about the appropriate treatment, as well as followup with their doctors and reports of any emergency. This can take place in the absence of any caregiver and increases their quality of life in a cost-effective fashion [1–3]. We have found that only 37% of subjects thought that they would be found within 30 minutes of a serious emergency [4]. Despite these facts, only 3% of elderly individuals have access to a personal emergency system. In our opinion, the main reason for this is that current systems are bulky and indiscreet, which will somehow label and stigmatize their users as “sick.” In addition, some systems are complicated to install and are not fully portable. In 2011, the Swiss company “Limmex AG” and the Centre Suisse d’ Electronique et de Microtechnique (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology) launched an “elegant” Swiss-made medical emergency watch (MEW) with an