App allows users to 'swipe to say you're okay' during pandemic

The MedicSignal app allows app users to connect with loved ones and caregivers, based around a “swipe to say you’re okay” foundation. In the current age of social isolation, it presents a valuable tool that can be extremely useful.

New Zealand company MedicSignal has developed an app that allows users to send the message that they are “okay” quickly and easily and reverses the usual alert process and gets help when someone is unresponsive.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, and the wide calls for social isolation, the company expects wider use of the new app. It recently announced the app will be available for free during this crisis as a way to offer a service to the people, families and communities impacted.

John Hookway from MedicSignal said: “MedicSignal allows the self-isolated to let their caring network know when they're unresponsive and covers you if you're unable to answer an alarm. The app's core functionality helps relieve the stress of relatives and friends worrying, calling all the time, or being uncertain if you need help. We are happy to make it available for free.”

According to the company, Hookway was working on MedicSignal as a smartwatch but once news of the coronavirus started to spread he realised the value it would serve as a tool for those in self-isolation and their caretakers and their families. He put the smartwatch development on hold while making MedicSignal available for free as an app where it can do a great deal of good.

MedicSignal hopes it can ease this burden on caregivers, allowing them to be there only when they’re needed, and not waste their precious energy when they're not. 

According to the company, MedicSignal keeps the choice of who gets alerted in the hands of its users, it is not just about technological differences, and it amounts to a different social idea and seeks to expand the conversation about medical alerts. Usually it’s about health only. MedicSignal has a solution to this problem: its “swipe” approach to medical alerts. With a solution that’s as simple to use as smacking the snooze button on an alarm clock it offers something the company hopes will change the conversation for the better for all involved – both the person with medical concerns and those providing care for them.