Leaf Space, an Italian ground network provider, has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a novel telemedicine-via-satellite project “CARES” that monitors medical data of COVID-19 patients 24/7 while they are quarantining at home. The resulting data of the “Health Platform”, developed by Leaf Space’s project partner H&S, is useful for diagnosis, compliant with current GDPR guidelines and the basis for providing the best care for patients. The remote diagnostic also reduces the exposure of medical personnel to the risk of infections. The beta test of this tele-diagnostic platform will be conducted by medical personnel and patients in Italy starting between the end of this year and the beginning of next year.
The CARES project was selected by ESA’s Business Application programme under its Space Solution umbrella. CARES is led by Leaf Space, which is integrating the remote monitoring health platform via its satellite telecommunication infrastructure to guarantee the service is available in every corner of the planet, including areas with no terrestrial connectivity or where the signal is poor due to increased capacity demand during lockdown conditions.
The tele-diagnostic Health Platform for COVID-19 patients has been developed by Leaf Space’s project partner H&S, an Italian company that creates software and services for home healthcare and is part of e-health multinational CompuGroup Medical. The Health Platform together with mobile ‘Home Health Gate’ (HHG) devices allows the almost real-time monitoring of patients’ medical data while at home, enabling remote diagnosis directly from any equipped hospital infrastructure.
Using the HHG devices allows patients to receive the medical care and attention they need throughout the recovery period while they are quarantining at home. The devices communicate via satellites with the central database of Leaf Space’s partner H&S, which analyses the data and makes it available to doctors dedicated to the remote monitoring of patients. For this system to provide the best monitoring and care services for quarantined patients, the signals by the telemedicine systems sent to the satellite and back the hospital must be transmitted reliably, securely and quickly.
“This ambitious project demonstrates that the applications of the NewSpace economy are increasingly providing applications that have a direct benefit for private citizens,” said Jonata Puglia, co-founder and CEO of Leaf Space. “The CARES project will also contribute to the improvement of the Italian health system, placing it at the forefront of telemedicine solutions. In this case it has been adopted to combat pandemics such as that of the current coronavirus but it can also be used to treat other pathologies at home.”
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