Blog Post

Blog
1 MIN READ

TELUS Health And Apple Join To Bring Personal Emergency Response Service to Apple Watch

C_Fun's avatar
C_Fun
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
5 years ago

 

TELUS Health is revolutionizing the way aging Canadians experience wearable personal emergency response services (PERS) by launching TELUS Health Companion on Apple Watch. TELUS Health is now making LivingWell Companion – our national emergency response service – available on the Apple Watch. 

 

With this collaboration, Canadians have the peace of mind knowing they have access to support via a fresh, sleek new device that combines the Apple Watch’s native fall detection and location tracking capabilities with the added layer of protection provided by our national Central Monitoring Station (CMS). In the event of a fall, the trained operators at our CMS will call the customer directly through the watchface. Operators can also call first responders and/or the user’s pre-determined emergency contacts. The customer can also initiate a call to the CMS directly from the watchface themselves.

 

Supporting aging Canadians and their independence

 

According to a recent study by the National Institute of Aging in partnership with TELUS Health, a strong majority of Canadians, particularly those over 55, say they intend to maintain active, independent lifestyles as they age. However, nearly one in three Canadians don’t feel prepared to deal with medical emergencies while alone. The collaboration between Apple and TELUS Health aims to address that issue by providing a solution that offers older Canadians more independence and peace of mind while reducing the stigma that can be associated with wearing PERS devices.

 

For more information, visit telus.com/companionwatch.

Updated 5 years ago
Version 3.0

4 Comments

  • Sorry to hear about the Stroke Bev. Having had some experience with loved ones in similar situations I think it might be best to leverage devices that are specifically meant for medical and safety applications such as the non watch based devices at https://bit.ly/3cdgioe 

  • Watch not ready for seniors.  About me: I am 87 years old. I live alone. I suffered a minor stroke January 30 2021. I am very hard of hearing. I am very physically active. I had a pendant from another supplier, but when it produced a false alarm while I was working in my workshop or tractor or mower or loud TV, I could not hear it resulting in several of my emergency contacts, and once even an ambulance showed up.

    To my delight, Telus announced a watch that would vibrate on my arm to signal a call from your monitoring personnel.

    I have very little use for a cell phone (I had one pay-as-you-go that I never use), but I purchased an iPhone 12, an apple watch 7, a two-year Telus air time contract and Telus Health Companion contract all so I could rely on your monitoring system.

    It works extremely well to alert me to a phone call, but it constantly produces false alarms.

    I have documented some of the same below.

    I have spent many hours on the phone with your technical people. I have religiously followed their advice, and they claim that there’s nothing wrong with their service. I sent the watch to Apple testing labs and they ran it through a “five-minute” test and claimed it’s working perfectly, yet tonight again, while sitting at my desk watching a TV show on my computer with my watch-arm motionless on the desk, it produced 3 false alarms between 7pm and 8:30 pm. As I write this, another false alarm at 10:20

    The occasional false alarm is understandable, but I am requesting a fair solution. Either replace the watch or cancel all the Telus contracts

    Constant false alarms

    Since acquiring the watch, there have been numerous false alarms. On two occasions, I took hard jarring falls which were not detected.

    On oneoccasion, 5 false alarms in succession. None during much activity. The last two, I was motionless watching TV. Final one, I did not get to respond fast enough. When the phone rang, I attempted to answer and the watch showed “Call Failed”, and emergency contacts were on their way.

    Tuesday evening 10pm watch rang, I attempted to answer, showed “Call Failed” I recognised Telus Health Companion service dept. Returned call immediately, Answer “We are closed”

    July 31 approx 7pm

    I was working on computer. Left arm with watch motionless

    Received call from monitor False alarm

    about 5 min later False alarm

    about 10 min later a third call “detected fall”

    Monitoring operator turned me over to Support

    Support took my info and forwarded me to technical people who answered “Closed Now” followed by dial tone.

    Then at 2 am, while watch was charging on my night stand, Monitoring station received alarm, but I was sleeping without my hearing aids, so I heard nothing, so my emergency contact in next city was notified and arrived to discover that it was a false alarm.

    August 4 10:25: Sitting at computer, left arm with watch absolutely motionless. Right hand on computer mouse . Monitor called, said I called for help.

    Bev McQuain

  • July 31 approx 7pm

    I was working on a computer. Left arm with watch motionless

    Received a call from monitor False alarm

    about 5 min later False alarm

    about 10 min later a third call “detected fall”

    The monitoring operator turned me over to Support

    Support took my info and forwarded me to technical people who answered “Closed Now” followed by a dial tone.

    Then at 2 am, while the watch was charging on my nightstand, the Monitoring station received an alarm, but I was sleeping without my hearing aids, so I heard nothing, so my emergency contact in the next city was notified and arrived to discover that it was a false alarm.

  • I pay over 200 a month for time and Telus Health Companion, and I can't get a response from Telus about constant false alarms summoning my support contacts.  I've spent hours and hours on the phone, followed all of the instructions. I am promised a call from superiors, but no calls. How can I get to the right person or department? I am considering not paying my current bill. I'll spend all the necessary time in court.