Older Adult Community Turns to Wearables for Contact Tracing, Sidestepping Apple-Google Limits

The Legacy at Town Square senior living community in Amarillo, Texas, recently expedited contact tracing when a nurse was suspected of catching the novel coronavirus, using high-tech wristbands from the CarePredict startup worn by staffers and residents, reports Reuters . This technology demonstrates a way to conduct contract tracing with wearables, while bypassing the limitations of Google and Apple's smartphone-based solution. Although the Google-Apple system promises to improve reliability in contact tracing, devices that use it would need Internet access and a government-sanctioned application. CarePredict's Tempo wristbands use infrared light to connect with beacons on a wall in each room of the Legacy community, documenting who has been near whom, where, and for how long. Such technology "makes you ready to make the best operational decisions at a moment's notice," said Joseph Walter, executive director of the community. Epidemiologists believe that communities with quick contact tracing following infections will be better positioned to curtail outbreaks and stay open in the months ahead.