Objectives of the service
The SATWORK solution can:
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Help citizens and health professionals living in Italy to deal with the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak;
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Support the development and the deployment of a “smart and sustainable” solution able to help workers and companies in Italy to deal with the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak, in the particular stage of “going back to work”;
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Support the development and the adoption of beneficial health services by the Italian community as a response to the coronavirus outbreak;
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Offer the opportunity to economic operators to deploy solutions for the benefit of citizens, local authorities and enterprises.
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Demonstrate the benefits provided by the utilization of (space-based) telemedicine integrated with other innovative technologies in these extraordinary circumstances.
The SATWORK application areas are:
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Local Test Campaigns for a diagnosis (in Real time) for detection of antibodies linked to Covid-19.
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Remote diagnosis, initial treatment and follow-up of patients Covid-19;
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Medical resources and Test planning to use for Covid-19 local screening;
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Follow-up of patients affected by other respiratory diseases;
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Healthcare and medicine care, in remote infected areas, for categories fragile and at risk (as children, elderly and disabled people, families in need which cannot easily be physically reached by physicians, ...).
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Guarantee well-being of home confined people - due Covid-19 emergency - transmitting both a sense of community and safety.
Users and their needs
The starting point for such a service was the dramatic sanitary situation in Italy during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. One of the main ambitions from the Italian Government was to limit the negative impacts of the successive lockdown measures implemented to stop the virus spreading.
The main idea was to avoid that the sanitary crisis would be followed by a severe economic crisis. In order to progressively re-start industrial activities and re-launch the economy, it was essential to preserve the health of people having to go to their working place and make sure they would not act as a virus vector. In this context, the SATWORK solution has been designed as an integrated system to support occupational doctors for the monitoring of workers to avoid the diffusion of COVID-19 during their industrial activities. The outcome of the project is a fully operational solution which has been tested during trial even though the end of the crisis has stopped the need for such a service.
The SATWORK service offers the ability to report, in real time, the probability of contagion by Covid-19 as result of the occurrence of symptoms or proximity to already infected or “high risk” people. The service supports workers by providing a series of measures aimed at protecting their health and preventing further spread of the virus when at work by means of increasingly effective checks during the phase of ascertaining possible contagion. One major advantage offered by SATWORK is the performance of screening sessions to the employee’s working place, allowing to secure the working environment.
Service/ system concept
The SATWORK solution implements screening activities to detect who is infected with Covid-19 in industrial areas and in small sectorial communities. The ability to detect a virus early has become one of the most crucial elements in slowing down the global pandemic and in returning to a “normal life”.
SATWORK consists of three following functional components: SatWork Services Center, Local Operation Center and SatWork Worker Support.
SatWork Services Center is composed by the 3 sub-systems:
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Covid-GEO with the Rapid Tests Screening Process,
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2Care that manages the workers’ clinical data
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PCA subsystem, which classifies workers according to the multiple inputs received.
Local Operation Center (Mobile Vehicle equipped with satellite telecommunication systems for real-time communication of the operational medical on the field).
SatWork Worker Support: it is composed by the mobile app 2CARE-APP which is an application that allow workers to interface with the system.
The SatWork service has demonstrated the ability to optimise on-site worker health check campaigns and to offer CV19-safe working conditions to a large number of employees. Overall, it contributes to limit the pandemic effects of the COVID-19 crisis and preserve people’s healthcare by detecting contaminated works and preventing the exposure to their work colleagues.
Space Added Value
The Space assets used within the SATWORK solution include Satellite Communication and Satellite Navigation, specifically the Galileo, Global Navigation Satellite System. Both elements are fundamental for the proper functioning of the SATWORK system, in particular for areas subject to digital divide issues.
Satellite Communication technology indeed allows to provide connectivity where terrestrial communications are insufficient, ensuring a high communication/connection speed standard in such a way to allow (near real time) remote clinical reporting carried out by specialised centres.
Moreover, the Satellite Navigation technology, and specifically Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System, is the only way to be able to define the real time position with a precision of less than a meter with a very high reliability.
Current Status
Pilot trials have been completed and the results are summarized as follows:
The Final Review took place on 30 January 2023. Overall, this demonstration project proved that SATWORK is an integrated system able to establish a link between occupational doctors, companies and workers. This solution is able to offer a tool to monitor - through periodic Covid19 Rapid Tests and Medical Checks - the health of workers turning back to work. SATWORK can be seen as an opportunity to enhance a fair and tailored “company welfare”, for the benefit of workers, companies, and (health) insurances.
