Stanley Healthcare Solutions Acquires Wi-Fi-based RTLS Company AeroScout

Jun 06, 2012Stanley Healthcare Solutions (SHS), a division of Stanley Black & Decker, has acquired real-time location system (RTLS) provider AeroScout. SHS provides RFID solutions designed to locate and protect individuals and medical equipment. The sale was completed on Monday, June 4, and engineers at both firms are collaborating this week to begin the development of products that will incorporate Stanley's existing RFID technology with AeroScout's Wi-Fi-based hardware and MobileView software platform, according to Bert Davis, Stanley Black & Decker's senior VP and SHS' president.

Stanley Healthcare Solutions' line of wireless and electronic systems for monitoring assets, inventory and people includes the RFID-based Hugs, Pedz and Passport patient-security solutions, acquired from VeriChip in 2008 (see Stanley Bolsters RFID Portfolio With VeriChip Subsidiary). The company also offers fall-management solutions, such as Bed-Check, with pressure-sensitive pads to indicate an unsafe movement, and HealthTrax, asset- and patient-tracking software that works in conjunction with RTLS and RFID technologies. Currently, more than 1.5 million Hugs, Pedz or Passport battery-powered RFID tags are in use within hospitals, with approximately 15,000 customers at long-term and acute-care facilities, as well as at hospitals, utilizing SHS' solutions. The AeroScout acquisition, Davis says, "broadens the nature of what we offer."

AeroScout was founded in 1999 under the name Bluesoft, with a focus on Bluetooth technology. The firm shifted to Wi-Fi-based active RFID tags in 2003 (see Wi-Fi Tag Maker Ramps Up), eventually changing its name to AeroScout. To date, the company has approximately 800 customers of its RTLS solution, including 500 hospitals that employ its active Wi-Fi tags and MobileView software platform to manage location data. The next generation of SHS products, Davis reports, will feature RTLS capability drawing from the MobileView platform software and AeroScout tags, thanks to the collaboration between SHS' and AeroScout's engineers.

Stanley Healthcare Solutions has offered AeroScout products in conjunction with its own in the past, Davis says, adding that there is an interest among SHS' customers for RTLS solutions designed for tracking a variety of assets and people.

Initially, Davis says, RTLS' value begins with infusion pumps, a type of equipment that hospital nurses historically have found difficult to locate when needed. But the two companies' engineers will also seek out solutions beyond monitoring health-care assets, patients and hospital employees. For example, he says, they may also work on products that could be developed with RTLS capability for industrial environments. He speculates that SHS' and AeroScout's engineers may work with individuals from Stanley's industrial solutions side, in order to develop other product enhancements to include RTLS. "We have a significant presence in the industrial market, and they have the same issues as hospitals," he states, noting that instead of "Where's my pump?" the question may become "Where is that tool?"

Some products may be offered in beta form by the end of this year, with commercial releases expected to occur in early 2013—both in SHS' health-care sector, as well as potentially in other Stanley divisions.

"We still have a lot of work ahead," Davis says. "We have very clear ideas where we want to take this." Details, however—such as how products would be branded—have yet to be decided, he notes.

"We're very happy with the acquisition," says Steffan Haithcox, AeroScout's marketing VP. "We consider it a great milestone," he adds, to combine AeroScout's technology with Stanley's family of products.

"We're clearly going to make a big splash with innovation that we can bring to our customers," Davis says. "We have a tremendous amount of respect for AeroScout."

Davis declines to provide financial details of the sale. At present, he says, there are no plans to change AeroScout's management or offices.