We are passionate about our mission at NCOA: helping everyone age with health and economic well-being. One way we support this mission is by taking the time to research, test, and recommend products we feel can improve your life. We want to make it easier to find reliable and affordable medical alert systems that can help you age well and stay connected to the world around you.

Medical alert systems are life-saving devices. But how do you choose the one that best meets your needs? We’re taking the guesswork out of the process by doing all the research for you.

The first step in our medical alert system testing process is understanding when and how people need these devices. We thoroughly research falls data, chronic illnesses, and mobility—and we discuss these topics with emergency room doctors, gerontologists, occupational therapists, and other health care professionals who specialize in working with older adults.

Next, we want to hear directly from medical alert system users. We start with verified customer reviews on unbiased sites like Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Then, we launch surveys to hear directly from older adults about their experiences with medical alert systems, what features are important to them, and how their devices have benefitted them.

We want everyone to feel safe and comfortable living independently. So when researching medical alert systems, we prioritized these qualities:

• Affordability
• Reliability
• Value
• Accessibility
• Worthwhile features

How we rank and review medical alert systems

To effectively test medical alert systems, we needed to understand what users find most important. So we went to the source—our surveys with older adult medical alert system users.

Through our surveys, we learned what really matters to those who use medical alert systems. Taking that information, we created a testing methodology with more than 60 data points to evaluate these devices.

We tested important features like automatic fall detection accuracy and GPS location tracking.

• To test fall detection, we followed the industry best practice, which is to hold the device at chest height and drop onto a softer surface. We chose this method because simulating falls can skew results. Studies have shown that real-world falls are hard to predict because they tend to be accidental, unexpected, and uncontrolled. And when a person tries to simulate a fall, their movement tends to be expected and deliberate, which leads them to move differently than if they fell naturally. While no fall detection is 100% accurate, almost every device we tested passed with flying colors.
• To test GPS location tracking, we went to three different locations (office building, big-box store, and city park). We tested GPS devices at each location to see if monitoring center staff were able to identify our location in three distinct areas. Companies used different methods (some provided GPS coordinates, while others provided street addresses). But every company was able to pinpoint our location with reasonable accuracy.

Each test is given a score, and we weight those scores from most to least important to users. Here’s how it’s done:

• Customer service (15% of score): Caregivers and users often decide to purchase and use a medical alert system when they feel vulnerable. So we believe there’s a lot of value in medical alert system brands that deliver exceptional customer service, whether in the purchasing experience or through everyday use. To rate a company’s customer service, we mystery-shopped brands (pretending to be an average customer) multiple times. Brands providing extended customer care hours, thoughtful interactions, and multiple ways to get in touch received our highest scores.
• Brand reputation (5% of score): We advocate for older adults, so we work to uncover companies with questionable contracts, poor value for the cost, a lack of transparency, or a history of legal issues.
• Features (25% of score): We spend a lot of time listening to experts and users on what matters to them when choosing a medical alert system. Then we test devices based on these key features, like the responsiveness of their monitoring center, or a device’s connectivity range. Brands offering important features that perform exactly as promised receive the highest feature scores. 
• User experience (25% of score): You won’t benefit from a medical alert system if you don’t wear it. So we investigated the reasons someone may put their medical alert necklace in a drawer and never look at it again. We set up the systems, connect them to a home or cellular network, test out the help buttons, wear the devices, and truly experience the product as any user would.
• Affordability (30% of score): Medical alert systems can save lives, so we want those who need them to be able to get them. We pay a lot of attention to each device's value, monthly costs, regular discounts, warranties, and ways to save.