EISAI AND MAMORIO TO JOINTLY LAUNCH “ME-MAMORIO” TRACKING TOOL TO SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA AND SENIORS GOING OUT

(Me-MAMORIO ended as of March 2021.)

Eisai Co., Ltd.
MAMORIO Inc.

Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Haruo Naito, “Eisai”) and MAMORIO, Inc. (Headquarters: Tokyo, Representative Director and CEO: Daiki Masuki, “MAMORIO”) have announced that the Me-MAMORIO1 tracking tool to support people with dementia and seniors going out will be launched in Japan on September 13.

Me-MAMORIO is a small tag that utilizes the short-range wireless Bluetooth2 communication standard. It is light weight and shaped like a round button. To make it easier for people with dementia and seniors to carry it around with them, it can be sewn into a jacket or hat or attached to a bag or wallet. When people with dementia and seniors carrying the Me-MAMORIO tag pass close to people in the community who have the corresponding application installed on their smartphones, or to fixed receivers which have been set up in stations and other areas, Me-MAMORIO's positional data is automatically sent to a server. Family members or related care workers can then confirm the positional data with their smartphones. Additionally, to prepare for emergency situations such as the sudden injury or illness of a Me-MAMORIO user, services such as a 24-hour hotline for emergency medical advice and a medical institution information service will be provided in collaboration with the Tokio Marine Group.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, by the year 2025, in which the baby boomer generation will be aged 75 and over, there will be 36.57 million seniors aged 65 or over in Japan, accounting for 30% of the overall population. Additionally, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare estimates that by the year 2025, one in five people aged 65 or over will suffer from dementia, increasing the number of dementia sufferers to approximately 7 million. Furthermore, according to statistics provided by the National Police Agency, of the missing persons reported to the police in 2016, 15,432 were people with dementia. This number has been increasing year after year since they began tracking it in 2012.

Eisai and Mamorio entered into an agreement to jointly develop Me-MAMORIO in July 2016, and with the cooperation of various stakeholders including local governments and community residents, conducted demonstrations aiming for implementation. The demonstrations revealed that modifying the shape and weight of tags to make them easier to carry and improving the accuracy of positional data were necessary to support people with dementia and seniors going out freely. Additionally, it was determined that in conjunction with the usage of Me-MAMORIO, it would be important to create a supportive environment, including a human network.
Since 2008, Eisai has been collaborating with various stakeholders including local governments, healthcare professionals and care workers to build communities where people with dementia can live safely and with peace of mind. This includes disease awareness activities and interprofessional collaboration such as between healthcare professionals and care workers. With the use of Me-MAMORIO as the premise, Eisai aims to support the creation of community environments where residents can help watch over people with dementia and seniors to support them going out.

MAMORIO Inc. already possesses one of Japan's largest smartphone application networks, which was built up through sales of MAMORIO (another type of tag that uses the same IoT tag technology as Me-MAMORIO to track lost items), and fixed receivers which have been set up in “MAMORIO Spots”, such as stations and department stories, to pick up positional data from tags. These will also be usable for the roll-out of Me-MAMORIO.

In addition to spreading Me-MAMORIO, Eisai and MAMORIO will work together to establish an environment where the community as a whole can look out for people with dementia and seniors, and realize a society where people with dementia and seniors can preserve their individuality and freely go out in the town they're used to living in.

Media Inquiries

<Notes to editors>

1.About the Me-MAMORIO Tracking Tool

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Product Name: Me-Mamorio
Price: 4,500 yen
(excluding consumption tax)
No monthly payments.
Corresponding application is free to download.
Size: Diameter 37mm, thickness 5.8mm
Weight: 7g
Colors: White, black
Power Source: Lithium battery
(usable for 1 year on average)
Accessories: Manual, stickers
About the Me-MAMORIO Tracking Tool
Examples of usage1
Examples of usage:
Attached to a hat
Examples of usage2
Using stickers to write a message / contact information

2.Me-MAMORIO functionality

  • 1)

    Notifications when leaving the house
    Me-MAMORIO can be synchronized with a smartphone (pairing). When the person carrying the Me-MAMORIO tag goes out, the family member at home receives a notification on their smartphone.

  • 2)

    Location confirmation
    By installing the free application on a smartphone or tablet and setting it up at home with an internet connection such as Wi-Fi, family members and related care workers can remotely confirm the positional data of a Me-MAMORIO tag to check if the person carrying the Me-MAMORIO tag is at home, or if not, what time they left.

  • 3)

    Tracking when going out
    When people with dementia or seniors who carry a Me-MAMORIO tag pass close to people in the community who have the corresponding application installed on their smartphones, or to fixed receivers which have been set up in “MAMORIO Spots” like stations, positional data is automatically sent to a server. Family members and related care workers can review up to a maximum of 24 hours of positional data history.
    Tracking supporters can help by setting GPS and Bluetooth2 to “on” and starting up the application. Tracking supporters are not notified when someone carrying a Me-MAMORIO tag is nearby.

3.About Eisai

Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as “giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides,” which we call our “human health care (hhc)” philosophy. With approximately 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realize our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products to address unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Oncology and Neurology.
Leveraging the experience gained from the development and marketing of treatments for Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, Eisai has been working to establish a social environment that involves patients in each community in cooperation with various stakeholders including the government, healthcare professionals and care workers, aiming to realize a society that co-exists with dementia through community building that enables people to live safely even if they have dementia. With agreements signed with local governments and medical associations in approximately 110 locations nationwide, Eisai is realizing interprofessional collaboration among healthcare professionals, care workers and others.
For further information on Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit http://www.eisai.com(New Window)

4.About MAMORIO Inc.

MAMORIO Inc. is a Japanese startup company that aims to realize a society where precious things are no longer lost. Under its vision of “Forget about forgetting”, MAMORIO Inc. develops and manages a number of products and services including the world's smallest IoT product MAMORIO which locates important objects via a user-based smartphone crowdtracking platform and AI technology, as well as Japan's biggest lost and found portal site “Otoshimono.com” (http://otoshimono.com).
For further information on MAMORIO Inc., please visit http://company.mamorio.jp

  • 1
    “Me-MAMORIO” is a registered trademark of MAMORIO Inc.
  • 2
    Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.