Medic Alerts - An Important and Growing Business

The MedicAlert organization has become the gold standard of storing and distributing personal medical data, with more than 50 years of service to around four million members. And around it is a growing number of other businesses and operations dedicated to helping people with pressing medical conditions.

Many of these medic alerts businesses are low-tech operations, such as the supply of medical ID bracelets, ID necklaces and ID tags, increasingly in the form of stylish jewellery.

However, as technology develops, more advanced products and services become available.

An example of new medic alerts businesses is the Signature Genetics service from MedicAlert, which is described as follows:

Each year, millions of Americans fail to respond to their prescribed medications, or experience adverse reactions. Reports indicate that medication errors cause an estimated two million Americans to be hospitalized or disabled, causing an estimated 100,000 people to die. Many of these drug reactions occur because medications are not being properly processed. DNA - a person's genetic make-up - plays a major role in determining what works for each individual.

Pharmacogenetics is a new science that is migrating from the researcher's lab to the doctor's office. It looks at how genetic mutations, called variants, can predict how well an individual patient will process prescribed medications....

Seryx has developed a DNA Drug Reaction Test called Signature Genetics that can help physicians customize drug prescriptions, based on an individual patient's genetic makeup. It also identifies drug combinations that can cause potentially harmful interactions.....MedicAlert is making the Signature Genetics drug reaction test available to its members nationwide.

Advancing technology also means improved ways of storing an individual's critical medical data, with new kinds of medic alerts monitors. An example is the E-HealthKEY Personal Health Record (pictured above), which stores a person's medical records - even including medical images such as x-rays, sonograms and graphs of blood glucose levels, weight loss and cholesterol levels - on a USB. It can also track medications and dosages to prevent prescription errors and set and receive automatic reminders for appointments and prescription refills, as well as maintain a log of all doctor visits.

* Get the Latest Prices on Medical Alert Necklaces and Bracelets.

February 20th, 2007
Updated: November 8th, 2007