LocatorX, which provides accurate, inexpensive, and flexible tracking technology to companies across a variety of industries, today announced the launch of a National Medical Device Registry, enabling any hospital that elects to participate to log their life-saving equipment at no cost while the COVID-19 crisis is underway. In addition, the registry will help hospitals quickly and easily identify the status of ventilators available for loan.

“For several weeks, there have been calls for technology companies to help in the COVID-19 crisis and we have recognized the need to step in and offer our service and technology,” said Jim Joustra, Chairman, LocatorX. “We believe in being good corporate citizens and want to do everything we can to help the healthcare industry, as well as our fellow Americans, in this difficult time.”

LocatorX technology enables organizations to track and find their assets, while monitoring the status and movement of the assets throughout their service life.

“Tracking things is what we do. The pandemic has made clear the need to track medical assets—particularly ventilators—when and where they are needed most,” said Steve Maul, Chief Revenue Officer, LocatorX. “Our technology will monitor the movement of all loaned ventilators in the program, so they can be easily returned to the proper location when no longer needed.

“Ventilators are just our first area of focus in this crisis—we can track any medical device and maintain its location and status within the registry.”

How it works:

The LocatorX National Medical Device Registry will be accessible by facility managers and appropriate governmental agencies who require visibility into ventilator availability at no charge during this crisis.

Each state, facility, agency or healthcare system that has ventilators in its possession can enroll to register their ventilators. LocatorX will provide tracking labels for each ventilator the facility has in its possession, enabling the location and status to be reported easily and quickly.

Nurses, respiratory therapists, and others authorized by their respective facilities will be able to download and use the LocatorX smartphone scanning app for free, and then scan the ventilator’s label each time an action is taken that affects that unit’s availability.

LocatorX will provide ventilator manufacturers the tracking labels as well, for any ventilators produced during this period, at no charge so they may be applied to the units prior to shipment to the healthcare facilities.

“While we cannot undertake brokering loans of equipment between facilities or states, we will make the information needed available to gain access to the equipment more quickly, without having to make 50+ phone calls to every other state and the federal government to find available inventory and where that equipment is located,” continued Maul.

Initially founded with technology discovered at the University of Oxford, LocatorX has patented new techniques such as a cutting-edge, solid-state, miniature atomic clock to track shipments precisely. With innovative cryptographic technologies, along with flexible and portable tracking options, LocatorX empowers clients to overcome common supply chain obstacles and support greater engagement with their own customers.