Orange to Track Alzheimer's Sufferers

Orange France is planning to start selling a bracelet that will use GSM and GPS to track patentients suffering from cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's. The phone-bracelet, which uses a GPS positioning system, offers a solution in assisting patients and preventing disappearance from wandering and straying caused by cognitive disorders. Medical Intelligence Technologies says that it has signed a four-year agreement with Orange for the service, following clinical trials conducted in France.

The agreement between Orange and Medical Mobile, the French subsidiary of Medical Intelligence Technologies, allows the latter to offer its medical tele-security service using Orange's mobile network to send voice communication, as well as data and automated alerts, to a medical assistance centre.

Orange and Medical Mobile also signed a letter of intent to distribute the Columba bracelet through France Telecom's stores in France. Both parties will evaluate the relevance of offering the product through a group of stores under the "Solutions Handicaps" banner or in more extensive distribution through France Telecom's 700 stores. As a result, Medical Mobile would add to a distribution network that already includes the country's 22,400 pharmacies.

"This is the commercial culmination of a five-year project and of an innovation that required significant efforts by every member of our team," declared Louis Massicotte, founder of Medical Intelligence and president of Medical Mobile. "The openness and receptiveness exhibited by the management of Orange is of great help to us and we are most grateful. We are laying the foundations of a brand new industry on the international markets. Medical Mobile is now given a unique and outstanding opportunity to respond to the needs of Alzheimer's patients with a first-time product that is already destined to be a major commercial success," he added. "Realizing that mobile telephone operators are constantly seeking new niches beyond voice transmission, we believe that the mobile medical tele-security sector is extremely promising."

The Columba bracelet is currently in the production process and is expected to be in the French marketplace in the spring."

Posted to the site on 26th January 2006