I would like to set the record straight about how the medical alarm and medical alert industry began. I am tired of reading the infinite variety of claims made by medical alarm providers saying they were there at the beginning. I never saw them! Lifeline Systems, a public medical alarm company, was the first and still remains the largest medical alarm company in the U.S. They actually started monitoring medical alarms systems back in the late 70's. At that time, medical alarms did not have voice components. Lifeline mainly depended on distribution through hospitals that mostly monitored their own patients with a monitoring center in the hospital. Many also used the Lifeline center in Massachusetts. In early 1980, Med-Alert in Philadelphia, PA began the now famous "Help me I've fallen" commercials in the states of PA, NJ, NY and DE. My old friend Donald Dortch formed the company with his cousin Alvin. Donald invited me to Philadelphia to help start the campaign. They were a Med-Alert distributorship of Phil Jenkins in Florida who supplied the original medical alarm system, which later became known as medical alert, or personal alarm systems. Phil was a vintage "suede shoe salesman" whose brilliance helped create the medical alarm industry as we know it. I don't believe he ever thought people would use medical alarms. He saw yet another opportunity to sell distributorships nationwide. This is what he did best. I think he fit the mold of P.T. Barnum. My background in navy electronics, and my curiosity, forced me to open and study the mysterious lifesaving medical alert electronic box. I was not happy with the way the electronics were designed and assembled. Quite unsafe and unpredictable, I thought for a medical alarm. These were the real beginnings of selling personal alarm systems direct to seniors in their homes. Lifeline at that time was still building their hospital and distribution network. Returning to California in January 1981 I founded Vital-Link medical alarms. A quarter century later Vital-Link is still represented by my past distributors throughout the U.S. I designed and built by hand every Vital-Link system. Like Phil, I bought our help button transmitters and receivers for our medical alarms came from Transcience in New England. Later we switched to the Linear Corporation transmitters and receivers. We monitored our systems from 2 locations in Bakersfield, CA with software I helped design. It shortly became apparent to me that monitoring, manufacturing, and selling were too much. We sent our medical monitoring station equipment to Emergency Response Center in Ohio. They and we grew together for the next 15 years helping define the medical alarm industry and monitoring systems. Several other medical alarm companies formed through time. Along the way my friend Donald's company was bought out by Howard Levine and it became known as Life Call, which later morphed into the public company ResponseUSA. Howard really pushed the "Help me I've fallen" commercials, originated by us at Med-Alert in 1980. In the next years "Help me I've fallen" became part of our national lexicon. Everyone made jokes of the funny commercial that played over and over and over. Retiring in 1995 I sailed with 4 others from Auckland, New Zealand to Roratonga 2000 miles away, near the equator. This journey gave me time to refresh my soul and realize it was time to go back to work. Maybe the real impetus to go back to work were some of the 30' waves in the huge South Pacific storm we encountered In 1996 I re-entered the medical alarm marketplace with my new system "Get Help Now" and American Senior Safety Agency, my pride and joy.
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