They may lose their way,
but not their name or home.
She may forget the way home. Her wrist band still knows who to call.
When a parent with dementia walks out, cannot find the way back and cannot answer, one second with the finder's phone shows their name, medication and the family's number. A hard-to-remove wrist band and iron-on patches in clothing protect them two ways.
For families caring for a parent with dementia, and for the care homes, day centres and dementia centres that look after them.
When she is found, she cannot tell anyone who she is
- A parent with dementia sets out on a familiar walk and loses the way back. Whoever finds them cannot learn their name, home or medication, and they cannot answer.
- Name tags fall off and ordinary bracelets slip off. A note in a pocket goes through the wash, and the phone, if there is one, is locked or left at home.
- Dementia, blood-pressure and diabetes medication is the first thing the emergency room and the care home ask about, yet the list lives only in a carer's memory and a pile of paper prescriptions from different pharmacies.
- When children and a care worker take turns, by evening nobody is quite sure whether this morning's pills were taken.
Tuesday evening, a bus stop two neighbourhoods from home
- 07:50
Before work, Bora stops by her mother's flat, watches Soonja, 81, take her morning dementia and blood-pressure pills, and marks both Completed in her mother's record in WaveMed. Soonja wears a waterproof wrist band with a locking clasp, and has RadPatch ironed inside her coat and on her shoe insole.
- 17:30
The care worker left at 16:40. Stopping by after work, Minjae finds the flat empty and his mother's coat gone. The family calls the police; Bora and Minjae split up to search, sending each other their location on the satellite map with notes like “park checked, heading to the market”.
- 18:15
An elderly woman has stood at the bus stop for a long time and cannot say where she lives, so a shopkeeper calls the police. The officer opens the free WaveMed app and holds his phone to the blue cross on her wrist band for one second: name, dementia, blood-pressure medication, Bora's number, then Minjae's.
- 18:50
Bora takes the call and reaches the bus stop. Soonja is home before her evening medication, and that dose gets its Completed mark too.
- Next day
Bora irons another patch inside the cardigan her mother reaches for most and writes the same information to it. Coat, shoes, and now the cardigan: one more thing she might walk out in can speak for her.
Her band and her coat say what she cannot
- Two layers that stay on: a waterproof wrist band with a locking clasp stays on through bathing and washing, and 25 × 25 mm RadPatch is ironed inside the coat, into the trouser waistband and onto the shoe insole, where it cannot be taken off. It survives the washing machine, and every patch carries the same information.
- One second, in the finder's language: a neighbour or a police officer holds a current smartphone to the blue cross, and her name, blood type, allergies, current medication, diabetes emergency information and emergency contacts appear in the reader's language, in any of 27 languages. Her children's and her care worker's numbers are stored together: if the first does not answer, call the next. No battery, no internet, no login.
- Anyone can read it, only the family can change it: 𝒱WaveMed, for paramedics, emergency responders and fire crews, reads the patch and cannot change anything. The information is encrypted inside the patch, holds only what the family chose, and is updated with a four-digit PIN when a prescription changes.
- Care kept as a record in the free WaveMed app: a separate record for your parent on your own phone, a medication schedule with reminders and Completed marks that make a missed dose stand out, blood pressure, heart rate and blood sugar as 30-day trends, and paper prescriptions photographed straight into that person's folder. The full dashboard gathers the readings and doses on one dated timeline and exports it as a PDF for the sibling taking the next turn.
- When you are out searching: the satellite map shows where you are standing, and location sharing sends it to the rest of the family with a note, such as the streets you have already checked.
Inside the coat, the shoe, the favourite cardigan: places that stay with her
Medicines, readings and prescriptions, kept by the family in the free WaveMed app
Real WaveMed app screens (demo data).
Where it is read
How to roll it out
- Families: install the free WaveMed app, create a record for your parent, enter only the details you choose, write them to the wrist band and the iron-on patches, and note the PIN (Path A).
- Care homes, day centres and dementia centres: prepare bands and iron-on patches for the number of residents, and register everyone in list order with WaveMed Desktop and a reader (Path B).
- Staff take thirty minutes of Desktop Writer training, and we build the family-consent step together, so each resident's patch holds only what the family agreed to.
- We brief local police and community centres on reading a patch with the free app. When a resident is transferred to hospital, the medication list travels with them.
Frequently asked questions
What if they take the band off?
Use iron-on patches in clothing and shoes as well. Several patches carry the same information and the family manages them in one place.
Does the person who finds her need anything special?
Only a current smartphone: most Android phones on 8.0 or newer, or a recent iPhone. No internet is needed, and with the free WaveMed app the screen opens by itself.
Can a stranger change my mother's information?
No. Readers can only read; changing or erasing it needs the PIN, and apps outside the WaveMed family cannot open it. The patch holds only what the family chose to show in an emergency.
Get the apps
If someone you love has started to lose the way home, start today with the free WaveMed app. Care homes and dementia centres: talk to us about bands and iron-on patches for your residents.