Long-awaited GPS footware will enter a different world

And who is going to make sure that the shoes are plugged in and charged when needed? These kind of solutions seem rather impractical unless you have a live-in family member or caregiver who visits often enough to charge the devices.

This is an interesting technological advancement that many professionals in the senior care industry will be happy about. Families with elderly folks suffering from Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia would benefit from this innovative assistive technology. Alzheimer’s is an incurable form of dementia that affects an individual’s memory, behavior and thinking patterns. The effects of Alzheimer’s typically become worse over time and interfere with an individual’s ability to complete normal activities of daily living, as well as their ability to recognize typically familiar people. A pair of GPS shoes would really make a big difference. Private care agencies might also want to include a GPS locator into their home health software so they know where to locate their patients.

As the company that created the technology for the GPS Shoe (GTX Corporation) we have received ongoing Google Alerts from your blog regarding this technology – in nearly every case providing inaccurate or poorly researched information:

1. There has never been a formal announcement of the shoes release until last month, when FCC approval for their sale was provided, and the first of 3,000 pairs went into production. Previous releases have focused on patents and licensing agreements achieved – standard information for the development of a new technology. There is nothing unusual about a new technology requiring 2-3 years to come to market, as well as updates or even estimates of its release date being provided, and often changed. Your statement that an “offering in the dementia technology space” had been made “more than two years before shipping” is incorrect reflects a basic lack of understanding of the product development process.

2. Your question of how many “pleas from worried caregivers of the 5 million” afflicted were received by Aetrex, GTX, or Andrew Carle can be easily answered: None. In the first case because no formal announcement of a release has ever been made. Secondly in that any inquires received were simply to request notification of when the shoes would be available. As someone professing to report on technology, it would have been appropriate to contact the sources above for such information, prior to dramatic speculation.

3. Your statement that you “doubt” any assisted living communities will express interest in such technology indicates that you either know little about assisted living and/or have not researched a single provider in this regard. We have been contacted by numerous assisted living communities, including some of the industry’s largest providers, many of whom are excited about this technology.

4. Your concern that “someone will have to agree to be notified upon departure (of the wearer) from a pre-set zone” is nonsensical. The very purpose of the shoes is to provide notification. No one would purchase them for any other purpose. Your reference to Carolyn Rosenblatt’s Forbes article stating concern some caregivers may then assume the wearer does not need to be watched, both ignores her overall support for the shoe, as well as focuses on the small minority of potential abusers of the technology compared to the more than 5 million caregivers for whom it would be a life enhancing asset.

5. Andrew Carle is a consultant advisor for GTX Corporation, not Aetrex as you’ve indicated, and as documented in more than 200 media stories on the shoes worldwide during the past two years. Nor did Aetrex announce product testing in 2009, as they did not sign a licensing agreement for the technology until 2010.
In previous postings you have suggested that the GPS shoe would “never happen” (less than 3 months before their announced release). You have also questioned whether the shoes would come with a monitoring service - the equivalent of suggesting we would spend years and millions of dollars creating a cell phone that would not then have cellular service.

It is our assumption that you either have a very small following of your blog, or your readers will eventually see the overall lack of research and expertise in your postings. If you were blogging about the latest iPhone or HDTV, such opinions would not matter. While we are not claiming the GPS shoe technology will be perfect or address every circumstance, the technologies you cover can affect quality of life for millions and deserve a much higher level of reporting.