Automated Security Alert has launched a two-in-one medical alarm called the FallGuard Pro, which functions as a push button medical alarm, with an inherent fall detector that will automatically send for help if the unit is tipped at a 60-degree angle for about a minute, indicating the person using it has fallen.

If a client does indeed fall and becomes unconscious, the FallGuard Pro can send an emergency signal allowing Automated Security Alert’s Life Safety monitors to get immediate help, which may be life-saving if a patient suffers a fall because of a heart attack or seizure and becomes unable to activate the alarm.

The one-minute delay may seem like a long time when someone is in trouble, but that’s to ensure that the call for help was truly an emergency – not an accidental push of the button – and no help is needed.

You don’t have to worry about just falls to use the FallGuard Pro, which also has a button that can call for help if a person has a different emergency. According to a company statement, the Pittsburgh-based Automated Security Alert said that using a medical alarm allows people to live independently in their homes for an average of about six years longer than those who do not use a medical alarm.

With an aging population, expected to grow to 19 percent of our country by 2030, these kinds of devices are making it easier (and safer) for seniors to remain at home when, in the past, they’d have been admitted to nursing homes.

There’s a phrase for it: Aging in place. It also saves on healthcare costs, because previously, chronically ill people had to stay in hospitals to be monitored, even though they often really didn’t need to be, but physicians felt too uneasy allowing them to go home.

Telemedicine has made it safe for seniors to remain at home, as vital signs can now be monitored remotely, transmitting the information 24/7 to healthcare providers who can intervene.