How Marcellino’s idea makes a meaningful impact on everyone

When every second counts: the challenge of locating patients in complex buildings

It can happen to any one of us: A stroke, a heart attack or any other medical emergency. Every second counts and emergency services do everything they can to get to the scene as quickly as possible and help the patient. However, this is often not so easy: “Especially in multi-storey buildings with many apartments, we lost valuable minutes because we couldn't locate the patient and had to run back and forth,” says Marcellino Gemelli, recalling his time as a volunteer in ambulance service several years ago – an experience he still remembers vividly.

The idea was there, but Marcellino initially faced major obstacles, since most smartphone manufacturers had originally planned to remove the pressure sensor from their smartphones. From their point of view, there were too few compelling use cases for the pressure sensor. Therefore, Marcellino patented his idea and approached the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), which is responsible for emergency calls in the United States. The FCC finally decided that it is mandatory for all smartphone manufacturers to integrate a pressure sensor into the devices so that in an emergency, the data from a patient's sensor can be transmitted to the control center and the patient can be located with centimeter accuracy.