Spirit Digital has been awarded a European Space Agency (ESA) Business Applications and SpaceSolutions contract and funding to develop its digital remote monitoring health platform.
The platform provides real-time location-based satellite air quality data, which helps patients with respiratory conditions to monitor their long-term condition and make empowered decisions about how they manage their day.
The system provides an advanced warning of when a patient’s condition is likely to deteriorate by vital signs monitoring. In Leicester COPD service, the digital platform has delivered a 67% reduction in emergency admissions amongst high-risk patients, working in parallel with health coaching and specialist nurse interventions.
With this new ESA initiative, Spirit Digital will lead a project team comprising air quality expert, EarthSense; not-for-profit innovation and technology network, Satellite Applications Catapult; and NHS support organisation Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Unit, to add Earth Observation data into CliniTouch Vie for improved healthcare decisions.
This data includes:
- Data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) – used for a range of species including NO2, O3, PM5 and PM10. These inputs will be critical to informing surface concentrations of key pollutants.
- Direct L3 NO2 data from Sentinel 5P to enhance regional import estimates within the air quality modelling.
- Meteorological data (EUMETSAT via ECMWF) contributing vital wind vector information to enable pollution dispersion to be accurately calculated.
- A satellite-enhanced digital elevation model is used to provide surface feature information (including buildings and trees).
Chris Barker, CEO, Spirit Health Group “In the UK alone, 1.2 million people are diagnosed with COPD, with in excess of 140,000 unscheduled hospital admissions and 30,000 deaths per year. We know that poor air quality contributes to morbidity and mortality, and is estimated to have cost £157 million in health and social care in 2017. Yet, we can change this!”
“By providing an enhanced system that will offer advanced warning of potential condition deterioration alongside pre-emptive intervention data, we can shift the focus from treatment to prevention. We are delighted that the ESA has recognised the huge potential of CliniTouchVie II and are thrilled to be working alongside our partners to deliver this ground-breaking project.”
