ESA Selects Leaf Space for COVID-19 Satellite Telemedicine Trial

Leaf Space engineers install ground station infrastructure. Photo: Leaf Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) selected Italian ground network provider Leaf Space for a novel telemedicine-via-satellite project called “CARES,” Leaf Space revealed Friday. The project collects COVID-19 patient medical data while they quarantine at home, which is then fed into a health platform.

The tele-diagnostic health platform was developed by Leaf Space’s project partner H&S, an Italian company that creates software and services for home healthcare, and is part of CompuGroup Medical. The health platform together with mobile Home Health Gate (HHG) devices allow for almost real-time monitoring of patients’ medical data, enabling remote diagnosis directly from equipped hospital infrastructure.

Additionally, the CARES project was selected by ESA’s Business Application program under its Space Solution umbrella.

“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.”