Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, UK – A new NHS trial is looking for volunteers to try out an app which helps people avoid sunburn while boosting their vitamin D intake.
Vitamin D is a vital hormone in a healthy body. Deficiency in Vitamin D can cause bone conditions such as rickets and osteoporosis. More than 1 in 10 people in the UK have insufficient Vitamin D levels, which is also linked with increased risk of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Space based technologies are already being used in healthcare, including to enable more rapid delivery of medicines, speed up diagnoses and monitor patients who may need additional care and support.
Sun4Health is an innovative app, backed by the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency, that monitors solar radiation at ground level using satellite data based on the patented HappySun® technology.
By providing live personalised recommendations about the time to be spent under the sun throughout the day, it informs users how to get adequate sun exposure for getting enough Vitamin D in a controlled safe way, anywhere and anytime. It’s aimed to encourage regular healthy solar exposures and to reduce the risk of sunburn.
siHealth Ltd has launched a clinical trial of Sun4Health led by the NHS. They are looking for volunteers from Scotland and Southern England aged between 20 and 60 years old.
Volunteers taking part will use the app for 8 months in their everyday life. Each month their vitamin D blood level will sampled through a basic home test kit that will be posted to an NHS laboratory for vitamin D serum level analysis. At the end of the trial the volunteer will receive their vitamin D blood level data taken during the trial
“I’m very pleased to launch this new clinical trial with the NHS” – said Dr Marco Morelli, Director & CTO at siHealth Ltd. “We believe in our satellite-based technology, with this app everyone could easily avoid sunburn and get enough vitamin D from sunlight.”
Emily Gravestock, Head of Applications Strategy at the UK Space Agency, said: “The UK Space Agency has been working with the space sector to support the NHS in recent years and space-based technologies are increasingly being used in healthcare, including to enable more rapid delivery of medicines, speed up diagnoses and monitor patients who may need additional care and support. We’re excited to support another innovative project that uses advanced science to improve people’s lives in a practical way.”
The clinical trial will last for 8 months, from May to December 2021. To find out more about taking part please go to https://www.sihealth.co.uk/news-and-events/new-clinical-trial-for-sun4health-app/ and register no later than 15th May.
To learn more about Sun4Health
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