Dina Gazzella is 85, and on her wrist is a small black band that looks like a watch and does rather more than tell the time. “If I feel unwell, this is a lifesaver,” she told Reuters.
In a summer that has turned lethal across Europe, that is not a figure of speech.The bracelet is part of a scheme run by Rome’s municipality, which has equipped around 700 elderly residents with a wearable that monitors heart rate and sleep patterns, detects falls through motion sensors, and lets the wearer call for help in an emergency.
A team of social workers keeps watch remotely, and the device tracks movement both inside and outside the home. The city is presenting it as a health-prevention tool, and the timing is not accidental.
Rome has spent the past week in the upper 30s Celsius, hot enough to place it among 16 Italian cities under the health ministry’s highest red heat alert, alongside Milan, Turin, and Verona.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The wider picture is worse. The World Health Organisation has linked more than 1,300 deaths to the extreme heat that began on 21 June, France has reported roughly a thousand excess deaths in a single week, and Germany recorded a peak of 41.7C.
