WIRELESS MONITORS UPDATE
By Ben Best

Near the end of 2005 I gave a report on the availability and prospects for wireless vital sign monitoring alarm systems which could be used to alert others of the deanimation of a cryonicist:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Cryonics_Institute/message/1287 The bottom line of that report was that although nothing was available at that time, many companies were on the verge of offering service and there would be many products available by the end of 2006. It is now the end of 2006 and it has mostly been another year of disappointment. The problem appears to be due to regulators rather than due to technology or the market, but I may be misreading the market. The market is still dominated by "panic button" systems that require active, conscious participation (of no value for someone experiencing sudden cardiac arrest or dying in their sleep).

The best "panic button" system that I had found was the Magnavox MobilePal+GPS System, formerly at
http://www.remotemdx.com/MobilePal/MobilePalGPS.htm but the service was discontinued in the Fall of 2006 reputedly due to the phasing out of analog cellular communication towers in favor of digital ones. This system combined GPS tracking with a push-button walkie-talkie. Robert Ettinger was using the service, but was informed that it was being terminated. The company evidently has a replacement service

http://www.remotemdx.com/seniorsafety/mobile.html but that was not mentioned in the letter to Mr. Ettinger reporting termination of the original service.

The LifeShirt system (http://www.vivometrics.com/site/system.html) which I described in my 2004 and 2005 reports was purportedly going to be available to consumers in 2006, but the company is still only advertising its availability for use by pharmaceutical companies.Smart Shirt (http://www.sensatex.com/) is available for health monitoring, but only in a clinical setting. The Body Media system (http://www.bodymedia.com/products/bodymedia.jsp) is also only intended for use by clinicians.

Medical Intelligence (http://en.medicalintelligence.ca/iiix/home/)which I also described in my 2004 and 2005 reports and which was purportedly going to be available to consumers in 2006 as a cardiac monitoring system with GPS and wireless alarm to call centers, is now mainly being offered as a portable telephone system with GPS for elderly people with cognitive problems --and is only available in France. 

EKGuard (http://www.ekguard.com/), which was beginning service in 3 states last year, no longer has a functioning website. The MedicTouch mPOD (http://www.medictouch.net/wearable.html) webiste says the product will be available "soon".

MDKeeper (http://www.tadlifecare.com/index.php?id=197) "is currently undergoing clinical certification for FDA and CE approval".

Lifeguard (http://lifeguard.stanford.edu/) is not an FDA approved product and is designed for development by NASA and others for use in "extreme environments".

At this date there are only two products on the market which might suit the needs of cryonicists for providing a wireless emergency alert of deanimation.

The first of these is Vivago (http://www.istsec.fi/index.php?lang=eng), which is only available in Europe -- apparently including distributors in the United Kingdom (http://www.vivatec.co.uk/) and the Netherlands (http://www.isolectra.nl/) among others.

The most promising system of all, however, is EXMOCARE, which we were informed about earlier by Brent Fox:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Cryonics_Institute/message/1961

On its website, Exmocare compares itself very favorably against Vivagio and Life Alert (http://www.lifealert.com/), which is one of the more prestigious of the "panic button" systems: http://www.exmocare.com/products.php?slide=4 The main shortcomings of Exmocare is (1) it is expensive and (2) the product is currently out-of-stock (not available): https://www.exmocare.com/store/

I want to investigate Exmocare further when it becomes available. And I am still hopeful that this is a technology whose time will soon come and cannot be suppressed indefinitely, even by government regulators. I will try it keep myself and CI Members informed of the latest developments. Unfortunately there is more disappointing news to report on Wireless Vital Sign Monitoring  http://www.cryonics.org/personal_alarms.html#200

As I reported, the very most promising system that I could find as of the end of 2006 was EXMOCARE. Now it appears that this company has succumbed to problems (government regulators? lawsuits? other difficulties?). The site database appears to be down. http://www.exmocare.com/contact.php When I have attempted to place an order on their website (on two different occasions) I have gotten the message:

"We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again at a later time.For now, you may return to The Exmocare Homepage. If this error persists, please contact an Exmocare representative here."

The link to contact an Exmocare representative is also broken. And when I try to phone the number on the contact page: (800) 259-9866 I get a recorded message that says "This number is not in use."

This is yet another frustration and defeat in my multi-year project to get some kind of vital sign monitoring alarm
systems of value to cryonicists.