By Sophie Davis-Cooper on December 15, 2020
In 2019, Spirit Health was awarded a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to deliver real-time remote monitoring for patients, while providing accurate, location-based satellite air quality data to help patients with respiratory diseases better manage their condition.
As part of this initiative, we led a project team including Earthsense, Satellite Applications Catapult, and Arden & Gem Commissioning Support Unit.
The goal was to add Earth observation data into our remote monitoring platform – CliniTouch Vie – that was user-friendly and easy for patients to understand and apply to their everyday lives.
The data includes:
- Data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) – used for a range of species including NO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10. These inputs are 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).
“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 offers advanced warnings of potential condition deterioration alongside pre-emptive intervention data, we can shift the focus from treatment to prevention.”
– Chris Barker, CEO, Spirit Health
We are proud to say that the initiative was a great success and CliniTouch has provided local air quality data to thousands of patients since. This unique offering empowers CliniTouch Vie’s users by letting them know when it is safe to exercise outdoors to lower the risk of an environmentally induced exacerbation. CliniTouch Vie also provides heat index and pollen count.
Find out more in the video below that showcases our successful collaboration with four fantastically innovative organisations.
If you would like to find out more about CliniTouch Vie and its air quality portal, please email us at digital@spirit-health.co.uk.
