GTX, a technology company specializing in GPS Personal Location Services (PLS), and Aetrex, a global leader in pedorthic footwear, will together create footwear to track Alzheimer’s patients. Photo Credit: GTXJune 05, 2009, (Sawf News) - GTX, a technology company specializing in GPS Personal Location Services (PLS), and Aetrex, a global leader in pedorthic footwear, will together create footwear to track Alzheimer’s patients.
The companies will collaborate to develop GTX Corp’s PLS 2-way transceivers and software systems to monitor the locations of “wandering” seniors afflicted with dementia by embedding them in Aetrex footwear.
Family members will be able to locate their loved ones wearing the footwear instantly with the click of mouse from any desktop computer or mobile phone with internet access.
Additionally, the system will allow a "geo-fence" to be programmed around a patient’s home which if crossed could trigger a "Google Map" alert to a cell phone, home or office computer.
“There are a growing number of seniors suffering from dementia and we know over 50% ‘wander’ without anyone’s knowledge of where they are and where they are heading,” said Chris Walsh, an ex Nike executive and current COO of GTX Corp.
"Five million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's and this is estimated to grow to more than twenty million as the Boomer population ages," states GTX Advisor Andrew Carle.
Carle is an internationally recognized expert in technology for seniors and Director of the nation's only program in Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University.
"Up to 60% of these individuals will become lost at least once and nearly half may die if not located within 24 hours. The volume of lost persons also threatens to overwhelm police, fire, and rescue systems - so this is life saving as well as a resource critical technology."
Embedding a GPS device in a shoe is preferable to placing it elsewhere on an Alzheimer's patient because they tend to remove unfamiliar objects placed on them. Development should begin immediately with actual product testing projected to commence by Q4 of 2009.
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