Source
r/Epilepsy•
Twity

Epilepsy Watches

Does anyone have any advice when it comes to epilepsy watches? I am a graduate student so work odd hours in and am often in a lab alone by myself. This worries my fiancee who would like a monitoring watch over a medical alert bracelet. I currently have the SmartWatch but it is heavy, the monthly cost is expensive, and recently stopped working when I changed phones and downloaded a newer version of the app. I have looked into the emphatica one but it seems like a lot of people have had bad experiences. Does anyone have any advice on one that works well?

Posted Jan 16, 2017, 4:01 PM UTC

1010
GrednForge•

This comment probably won't be exceptionally healthy, but the two smart watches I looked into for my sister was EMPATICA and actually the Apple Watch with EpiWatch installed. EpiWatch is in beta and it's run by Johns Hopkins Epilepsy Clinic. I think the Embrace by Empatica is still the only one that sends out alerts based on your physiology (in this case, skin conductance). However, we had a lot of false positives from when my sister was working out. Still, it's better than nothing, because it always had us call my sister when we get alerts, for her to either confirm it was a false alarm. If she didn't answer, we would rush to her.

Another great app we use is called Life360, which allows you to create Circles, in which you can see where a loved one is at all times. It just uses the GPS in your phone You can just open up the app and see that they're at home or work or travelling. One particular time, my sister had a seizure, but we didn't know where she was. She was supposed to meet her boyfriend on campus but she never showed up. We checked the app and saw that she was 'travelling' near a hospital, meaning she was in an ambulance. We got to the hospital by the time she was admitted, which she was happy about.

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GrednForge•

*won't be exceptionally helpful. Sorry, typing on a phone

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TwityOP•

I knew there were a couple apps where you could track location, and the old watch I had would actually text a google maps link with the location. Still the traveling thing is handy.

My old watch also gave out tons of false positives, so I am not too worried about that. Thanks for the response.

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Gucciipad•

How did u sign up for the epi watch ? I chose all the right answers but it won't get past that. I have to start all over again

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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BoatTailedGrackle•

You may want to check out my review on the Empatica watch. The device has a lot of potential. For those who have frequent tonic clonic or myoclonic seizures, it may be a very good option for you.

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TwityOP•

Mine are well controlled (last one was ~1.5 years ago), so the main worry revolves around me being in the lab at 2am and nobody being around. If I was rarely alone I would be perfectly happy with the medical alert bracelet. The seizures are tonic clonic, and I have been told they are very jerky (I ripped a couple muscles in my shoulder while lying on a bed), so I think just about any device will pick them up.

Is the watch heavy? My biggest gripe with the SmartWatch was that it was heavy and didn't fit snugly on my wrist, so it either constantly banged into the bones around my wrist or was so tight as to be uncomfortable.

I have to admit am a bit more relaxed about the dangers involved, it is more that my immediate support worries about only having the medical alert bracelet.

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BoatTailedGrackle•

The Empatica device is so light, I forget that it is on my body. The device will call your caretaker and notify that a seizure has been detected. If nobody is around in the lab to assist you, this may be a good first line of defense. You can also add multiple caretakers to be alerted from the device if it goes off.

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TwityOP•

Sorry, I have one more quick question. Can you cancel the false alarms from the watch or does it require the phone app? Does the watch indicate when it is triggered (for instance my old watch buzzed)?

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BoatTailedGrackle•

You can cancel the false alarms; yes it requires a smartphone app in order to make the calls/report seizures.

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zkbthalien•

*FYI i have 2 empatica watches. They are still in semi testing phase. They do little more than detect repetative motion and send a text/phone call once a time threshold is met. They ARE slowly getting FDA approval to turn on the stress monitoring feature but as of now this is NOT working. I backed the original funding project 2 years ago and less than 25% of the promoted features are currently working. It is slowly improving but i would personally hold off on getting one until they are fully operational. I do know there are various apps in development for the Apple Watch that are working to do similar monitoring. I would personally wait and see which works out.

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