ESA supports the development of health app Care View to help isolated citizens

Luxembourg, 16 February 2021. – How space adds value: The European Space Agency (ESA) supports the creation of the service, a GNSS-based health app called Care View to identify vulnerable and socially isolated older residents in the Covid-19 pandemic, ESA said.

The application developed in cooperation between ESA Space Solutions, the agency’s support for entrepreneurs, and the British Urban Sustainable Development Lab (USDL) uses smartphone technology to help detect vulnerable individuals and present ‘heat maps’ to healthcare workers across the city.

Care View began as a pioneering outreach project in the UK city Leeds in 2016 when the City Council engaged with the most deprived part of the population – “individuals ‘swallowed up’ in the vastness of the city and lost to the multiple challenges of outreach”.

An initial 12-month trial highlighted Care View’s impact and effectiveness in Leeds. In the project’s next phase, it was shaped directly by its users, with the support of space technology. Care View’s two main features, a secure heat map of social isolation hotspots, and a signposting tool towards support services were expanded and enhanced.

ESA Space Solutions and USDL are now gearing Care View towards its commercial expansion and have plans to roll it out with potential customers in Germany and Denmark.