GreatCall reveals remote monitoring wearable for seniors
US-based care management platform GreatCall has announced the launch of Lively Wearable, a device worn around the wrist or neck that offers a mobile emergency response service via a one-touch button, enabling seniors to connect to a team of GreatCall agents in emergency situations. Caregivers can also connect to the device, using an app named Link, which allows them to view the senior's progress, and communicate with them. The device will be available in Q2 2016, and retail at $99, with the mobile response service a supplementary monthly subscription. 

Only a month after GreatCall announced that it had acquired the assets of aging in place startup Lively, GreatCall unveiled the Lively Wearable by GreatCall.

The device, worn on the wrist or around the neck, tracks activity and offers a mobile emergency response service via a one-touch button that connects seniors to a team of highly trained agents in emergency situations. The Lively Wearable sends data it collects from the band to a companion app via Bluetooth. The app also offers users mental, physical, and social activity challenges throughout the day.

A senior’s caregivers can use their own app, called Link, to view the senior’s progress as well as send them messages.

“What makes the Lively Wearable unique is that it is designed to fit the needs of both the older adult and the family caregiver, something we have found to be critical to adoption,” GreatCall CEO Davis Inns said in a statement. “This announcement comes on the heels of GreatCall’s acquisition of Lively. We’ve taken the energy of the Lively name and, building on a decade of research and consumer insight, applied it to this innovative new wearable that truly makes a difference in living a safer, more active life.”

The Lively Wearable will be available for purchase on GreatCall’s website beginning in the spring of 2016 and in retail locations starting this summer. The device will cost $99.99 and the mobile emergency response service costs $14.99. While the device currently works with Android devices, including GreatCall's phones, GreatCall plans to add iOS support by the summer.

GreatCall’s acquisition of Lively was first announced in early December 2015. At the time, the company said that current Lively subscribers will continue to get support for the technology from GreatCall's customer service, and over time the whole system will transition to become part of GreatCall's platform.

GreatCall's current offerings include smartphones and flip phones with large screens and a small, curated selection of apps for seniors, an urgent response call system called 5Star, and an mPERS device called GreatCall Splash, which is a handheld, clip-on device. The Lively deal isn't the company's first small acquisition: GreatCall added mPERS to its product line following the acquisition of MobiWatch in 2009.