Wireless bio-monitoring, first used in human beings for fetal heart-rate monitoring more than 30 years ago, has now become a technology for remote sensing of patients’ activity. Technical advances in miniaturization and wireless communications have enabled development of monitoring devices that can be made available for general use by individuals/patients and caregivers. Applications range from monitoring high risk patients for heart and respiratory activity and falls to sensing levels of physical activity in military, rescue, and sports personnel. The range of measurements include heart rate, pulse waveform, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, tissue pCO2, exhaled carbon dioxide, physical activity, strain in orthopedic devices, intracorporal pressure, and gastrointestinal lumen visualization.
Even soldiers in the French army will have their heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs monitored by telemetry as part of the next-gen combat suit due around 2015. The system will now include a health-status uplink so field commanders can check on the readiness status of their troops in real time.
June 16th, 2010 · Remember Spike Lee’s “It’s the Shoes” commercial featuring Michael Jordan? Those shoes were special because everyone wanted to Be Like Mike. Today, everyone wants to be safe, especially those caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease. By embedding a part of a Personal Emergency Response Monitoring System (PERS) in a shoe (rather than a phone/device), the GPS Shoe responds to geo-fence perimeters established by caregivers and relays the location and alerts via Google maps to smart phones and computers.
Currently scheduled for retail sale this summer, the Aetrex Ambulator® GPS Shoe will provide millions of caregivers the means to help easily find those afflicted with Alzheimer’s that wander and become lost. The GPS Shoe will be available through the Aetrex website, gpsshoe.com website and a select group of assisted living facilities.
GTX Corp (OTCBB: GTXO), a provider of customizable, embedded 2-way GPS Personal Location Services (PLS) solutions, is bringing personal GPS tracking solutions to the 5.3 million seniors afflicted with dementia by signing a four year, license agreement with Aetrex Worldwide, Inc. GTX Corp’s eight patents for the GPS Shoe cover a GPS transceiver module that is placed within the footwear and transmission of location coordinates to a central monitoring station which disseminates the location data through the use of proprietary software, cellular connectivity, the GTX Corp middleware platform and the secure viewing portal.
“We believe a miniaturized GPS tracking device embedded inside a therapeutic shoe is the ideal solution for the millions afflicted with this terrible disease, and we are very pleased, after many years of R & D, to partner up with a company like Aetrex which has devoted 64 years to making foot health products,” states Patrick Bertagna Chairman and CEO of GTX Corp. “Aetrex’s mission has always been to develop footwear and foot care products that combine unrivaled technology with innovative designs,” said Evan Schwartz, President of Aetrex Worldwide Inc. “This partnership is a terrific opportunity for Aetrex to use our expertise to extend the brand beyond the comfort category and help a segment of our population that is in need.”