More than 20 employees in Arvika municipality tested the SunSense digital service for the prevention of harmful UV radiation during June. The test can provide interesting answers about both product development and the working environment.
SunSense is one of the companies in the DigitalWell Ventures accelerator, which contributes to the development of scalable, digital health and welfare services. The SunSense solution is easy to use, via a sensor that is attached to the clothes, information about UV exposure is sent to an app in the mobile phone. The service is individually adapted according to skin type and eye color, among other things, before the maximum daily dose is reached, the user receives a notification.
The test that was carried out is a collaboration between SunSense, DigitalWell Arena, Scaaler Consulting and Arvika municipality. Between June 1 and July 1, roughly 20 employees in Arvika municipality have been able to test the SunSense solution. The professional groups that participated mainly work outdoors and involve, among others, park workers, preschool staff, cleaning workers and operating technicians.
The aim is to get answers both about the product's ease of use and potential risks in the work environment.
Test environments essential for development
According to Vidar Mortesen, co-founder and VP Strategic Partnerships at SunSense, good collaboration partners and pilot customers who are innovative and ready to test innovative solutions are absolutely crucial for business opportunities to explore new markets. So far, the SunSense service has mostly been aimed at private individuals, but if you are also interested in how it can become a tool for creating a safe working environment.
- It gives us the opportunity to get feedback and opinions from the end users, and in this case the employer. Quite often, it is difficult to find good collaboration areas between business and the public sector - therefore it has been liberating to have such a positive attitude towards developing and implementing this project, says Vidar Mortensen.
Steve Skoog, project manager at Scaaler Consulting, is grateful that so many people wanted to come forward and share data about their UV exposure. Their experience of using the service will also be important for the continued development work.
- UV exposure becomes high relatively quickly in the beautiful weather, mainly for the group that constantly works outdoors. We have also received several interesting views on how the service can be developed, for example through a function in the app where the user can see their UV exposure over time, says Steve Skoog.
In the project report that is now being produced, additional feedback from the users will be collected via a survey. The data on UV exposure recorded will be analyzed in more detail, including by comparing it with data from SMHI. The results will also be shared with researchers at Karlstad University, as support in the evaluation.
Interesting for the municipality as an employer
Ola Mossberg, electricity grid manager at Teknik i Väst, has been DigitalWell Ventures' key contact to be able to establish the test. According to him, the idea of testing a digital tool that can prevent ill health has been received with interest in the municipality.
- Many have been curious to participate and for us it is important to get knowledge into the operations about what the working environment looks like for our employees who spend a lot of time outdoors. The fact that it is a group-wide project in health and digitization, where many businesses together with actors from the business world participate, is developmental for us. We want to contribute with experiences and data to be able to take research and development of these issues further, says Ola Mossberg.
