SaferMe Launches Contact Tracing Wearable Devices

Over the past six months we've provided our automated contact tracing apps to hundreds of businesses.

Our app automatically logs when people are in contact via a technology called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This data is used to produce a simple contact tracing table, which allows a business to rapidly contact trace and protect employees when positive cases of the virus occur.

Sometimes employees are not allowed to carry smartphones into certain areas or they do not have access to them. Therefore we have chosen to also deploy a new SaferMe contact tracing wearable device to complement the SaferMe apps.

By working together, the apps and the wearables can gather a more complete dataset and make contact tracing even more effective for businesses.

How does the contact tracing wearable device work?

Your team wears SaferMe's contact tracing card. The card is a Bluetooth transmitting device about the size of a credit card and weighs only 18 gms.

As the worker goes about their day, the card will record whenever it comes close to another cardholder and save this information on the card. Once a day, or whenever a business chooses, the cardholder can press a button on the card at a syncing station or next to a phone. This uploads the contact logs to SaferMe’s contact tables, and your HR leaders can access these in the event that a contact trace is required.

The card is completely secure. There is no personally identifiable information on the card and all information on the card is encrypted. If an employee's card is lost or stolen, there is not any recoverable or accessible data on it. From a privacy perspective, contact cards are a very low-risk solution.

When is SaferMe’s wearable device the right solution?

A separate contact tracing card really shines in situations where:

• employees do not have modern smartphones.
• a business does not already have a 'bring your own device policy' with employees.
• the use of a phone may not be appropriate, like on a manufacturing floor, warehouse or clean environment.

Our wearable solution works alongside our existing phone solution, accessible to your HR leaders in one unified contact tracing table. This gives you complete coverage in your workplace.

Why did we develop the BLE app first?

Phone apps for contact tracing can be rolled out very quickly and at a lower cost because there is no additional hardware involved for a business. Good hardware also takes time to make. Where others hardware providers have rushed into the market and suffered issues with reliability, we have taken the time to learn what works.

Why do we need this if a vaccine is going to be available?

Vaccines will take a long time to distribute to the levels where it will impact safety for at-risk groups. In the meantime, and especially over the next 12 months during each business’s back-to-work program, there is a great need to keep employees safe using best practice technology.

You can read more about the challenges of rolling out a Covid vaccine here. As cases and deaths due to the Covid-19 continue to grow in the United States, the need to protect staff and try and keep business productivity up also grows. You can learn more about SaferMe’s wearable contact tracing solution here or book a demo today.