Finland Times

 

Photo Source. Business Oulu news letter.

9Solutions, an Oulu-based healthcare sensor network company, has just launched its latest product, gTag, a personal monitoring device which has GPS and LTE connectivity and is compatible with all the three mobile ecosystems.

 

“An increasing number of elderly people are living in their own home, which of course is good – but when signals of forgetfulness or physical weakness start coming up, that place can be dangerous,” explained 9Solutions CEO Sami Herrala. 

 

He gave an example: if a person suffers from memory loss, or even Alzheimer’s, the immediate family needs to know if something is amiss. So they’ve designed a product that does just that, and more.

 

gTag is a small black bracelet, about the size of a wristwatch. It comes ready with an integrated SIM card and connects seamlessly to the 9Solutions locating system. The company is making two versions: the Pro is for home care professionals, while the Companion is for the elderly themselves, giving location and weather data, and connecting to other devices in the network such as stove guard or smoke alarms. 

 

“The gTag is also for the other family members, who can be alerted by the 9Solutions Smooth Lite app, which is available first for Windows phones since the end of August, and iOS and Android in a month’s time,” said Herrala.

 

The idea is to get more information in the early phases of diseases that bring out unusual behaviour in the elderly, such as disorientation, so if that unplanned walk in the middle of the night happens, the device can send an automatic alarm, which is then picked up either by professional personnel in a care home, or by a family member with the app. 

 

“We have plans to broaden our product lines in this vein, towards improved communication between family and professionals, and increase the role of the family members.” In Herrala’s opinion, home care has obsolete basic technologies that are from the 1980s and is in dire need of updating. 

 

With offices in Oulu, Helsinki, Düsseldorf, London, and Stockholm, 9Solutions is a leading manufacturer of Bluetooth Low Energy RFID and cloud technology-based solutions for healthcare safety and work-flow optimization. So far, 2015 has been a good year for the company. Its healthcare safety and productivity solutions are selling well and it won the Management and Hospital M&K award in February. “We hit our last year’s net sales in May, so we’re growing steadily,” announced Herrala.

 

“We currently are in business with over 400 care homes and hospitals as their clients now in Finland alone,” said Herrala. Although global markets are lucrative, the company is in no hurry. “We’re going to do this one piece at a time – Scandinavia first, then Europe.”