GPS SmartSoles on CBS Channel 5 Phoenix AZ

May 22, 2022

AZ Family.com Insole with GPS could help locate lost dementia, Alzheimer’s patients in Arizona

David Caltabiano
Posted Feb 27, 2020

The new device could help families keep track of loved ones who have dementia or Alzheimer's.

PHOENIX, AZ (3TV/CBS 5)– Lost and confused– it’s a sad reality for people who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Patients often leave their houses and forget how to get home. Now, there’s a new product geared toward helping those families– one of which remembers the day their father went missing in 2015.

Raul Lujan is like many of our grandparents or parents: he loves to smile in pictures with his wife and hangout with his great grandchildren. On a July day in 2015, he took a drive to the auto shop. “He went out that morning to take the car to get the tires check,” said Raul’s son, David. “It was about 9 a.m. and he never came back.”

Raul has dementia and his family had no idea where he was. “You get that sense of urgency that you have to find him,” said David.

Now, there’s a new product that could have helped the Lujan’s in 2015. It’s called SmartSole. It’s a $300 insole, which contains a GPS tracking device– giving loved ones the ability to see every step they take.

“You can’t rely on them putting something around their neck,” said GTX Corp CEO Patrick Bertagna. “It can stigmatize them, so that’s where the whole wearable concept came about– putting something that’s invisible and can’t be seen. Slip it into their shoes, and every time they walk out of the door they have a tracking device on them.”

David said it’s a great idea, and luckily his dad was found the same day after an Arizona Department of Public Safety Silver Alert was issued. For more information on SmartSole, click here.->> Click/tap here to download the free azfamily mobile app.

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