Jim Nalley's heart breaks when he hears of a tragedy like Elizabeth Richards'.

The 89-year-old Bedford woman was found dead in her locked car along a rural Oklahoma highway last year, a week after her family reported her missing. Authorities say she apparently became disoriented on her way home from a mall in Hurst, drove 160 miles north and died of heatstroke.

The news stories about Ms. Richards' disappearance hit home with Mr. Nalley, a telecommunications executive. Months earlier, he had formed a company and set out to design an electronic monitoring system that would quickly find older people with dementia who wander.

"I wanted to cry," he said.

"I told myself, 'This didn't have to happen.' "

JUAN GARCIA/DMN

Jim Nalley (left) and Chris Buehler have received backing for EmFinders from the North Texas Enterprise Center for Medical Technology, which is constructing a building at this site in Frisco.

His Frisco-based company, EmFinders, is developing a tracking system that he believes could have located the confused woman within minutes of her reported disappearance and directed law enforcement officials to her. He and his business partner, Chris Buehler, hope to roll out their product by summer.

Law enforcement authorities and Alzheimer's Association officials who have studied EmFinders' system, or seen it demonstrated, say they're intrigued. They agree it could provide peace of mind to families of the 5.1 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease.

Six in 10 people with dementia will wander at least once, according to the Alzheimer's Association. They may leave home because they're bored or restless. Or they run an errand and forget where they are. Or they just take off for no apparent reason, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Dallas police are called to find about four missing seniors every week, said Sgt. Reginald Matthew of the department's Youth and Family Support Division.

"Wandering can turn out to be life-threatening more often than people think," said Lisa Brodsky, director of programs and services for the Dallas chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. "If someone with dementia isn't found within 24 hours, he runs a 50 percent chance of serious injury or death."

Electronically tracking Alzheimer's patients is mostly a scattering of rudimentary business ventures at the moment, as small entrepreneurs experiment with radio-based and satellite technologies. But experts predict it will grow into a full-fledged industry when 78 million baby boomers reach old age.

EmFinders will fit its customers with radio transmitters disguised as tamperproof bracelets or watchbands that, when remotely activated, will notify 911 dispatchers, Mr. Nalley said. The coin-size devices will use the cellular network to pinpoint their location and guide rescuers to them.

"Though cellphones with global positioning chips have become popular with perpetually moving teenagers and young people, they aren't practical for older adults with dementia," the EmFinders chief executive said. "So we had to build another kind of system for people who can't use cellphones."

When someone with Alzheimer's disappears, the caregiver will notify the police and EmFinders' call center. The center will turn on the bracelet's transmitter so the device can contact the 911 system and provide the person's location. The call center will also give the 911 dispatcher more details about the lost person.

"What's appealing about EmFinders' system is that it's not pie-in-the-sky – it relies on a combination of current technology and local law enforcement," said Monica Moreno, a national executive with the Alzheimer's Association.

EmFinders expects to charge about $100 upfront for the device and $10 to $15 per month for support services, Mr. Nalley said.

When the company demonstrated its system for the Austin police and Austin Alzheimer's Association, it determined a person's location to within 15 feet after about 10 seconds. Mr. Buehler said a similar demonstration is planned for the Frisco police and Dallas Alzheimer's Association.

The North Texas Enterprise Center for Medical Technology recently brought EmFinders under its umbrella of start-up companies. The Frisco-based nonprofit organization helps entrepreneurs launch technology-related business ventures.

"Jim and Chris got our attention because they have a solution to a fast-growing concern for families," said Larry Calton, the business accelerator's director.

Mr. Nalley and Mr. Buehler say their electronic tracking system will take caregivers a couple of steps beyond current anti-wandering efforts.

The Alzheimer's Association now sponsors a Safe Return program that notifies law enforcement authorities when someone wanders off. Participants wear ID jewelry with the program's toll-free number. Then, when someone finds a missing person, the wanderer can be identified and reunited with relatives.

The association recently joined with MedicAlert, a nonprofit group, to make health records available to emergency medical personnel if a wanderer requires immediate attention.

Still, the program must rely on a law officer or Good Samaritan to spot someone in distress. Texas law enforcement officials began issuing Silver Alerts last fall to enlist the public's help in finding missing seniors, similar to Amber Alerts for missing children.

The best-known program for locating the missing is Project Lifesaver, an international nonprofit organization that teams with local law enforcement agencies to provide Alzheimer's patients and autistic children with wristbands that emit radio signals.

But the program exists only where police participate. About 640 agencies belong to the project, including 12 in Texas, said spokeswoman Amber Whittaker. The only member agency in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is the Grapevine police.

Pat Van Dyke, who's 56 and lives in McKinney, began wearing an Alzheimer's Association Safe Return bracelet shortly after being diagnosed four years ago. However, she was intrigued enough by EmFinders' idea to join a focus group about the prospective product and offer her opinions.

Although Ms. Van Dyke still leads an independent life and works as a volunteer, she wants to be prepared for the possibility she will lose her way someday.

"It would be a relief to me and my family to know I'd be found quickly," she said. "Yes, I'm definitely interested in some sort of tracking system."

Anyone developing a product for tracking people with dementia will need to overcome three problems, said Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, a national coalition of technology companies, senior care providers and universities.

The first problem is cost. No matter how sophisticated, a satellite-based system that charges hundreds of dollars a month won't attract buyers, he said.

The next hurdle is battery life. If batteries need recharging every few days, caregivers will think the system is more a burden than a blessing, Mr. Alwan said.

And the last obstacle is appearance. If seniors don't find the transmitting device attractive, they won't wear it, he said.

Mark Warner, co-founder of the Alzheimer's Store, which sells hundreds of Alzheimer's products online, offered some low-tech advice to the high-tech entrepreneurs struggling to design an aesthetically pleasing transmitter.

The answer may lie as much in the presentation as in the design, he said.

"I've found that seniors will wear anything their grandchildren give them," he said. "Just wrap up the transmitter as a present, say it's from little Susie, and you'll never have to worry about it being tossed into some corner."