Public health campaigns advise minimising solar UVR exposure to prevent skin cancer. However, such exposure also has health benefits, especially vitamin D synthesis. Thus, effective balancing of risks and benefits of solar UVR would be ideal if personalised recommendations were supported by accurate real-time solar dosimetry.
An innovative CE-marked medical app (Sun4Health®) has been recently developed for this purpose. The app performs real-time whole-body monitoring of both erythemal and vitamin D-effective solar UVR doses using patented technology that combines real time satellite data and AI-enabled automatic indoor/outdoor positioning [1][2], also incorporating the spectral transmittance and application quantity of the sunscreen applied. This enables personalised recommendations on optimal sun exposure time and sunscreen use with body-site specific recommendations. The app has been evaluated in two clinical studies.
A field study (n=59) was performed to evaluate the app in a beach scenario (Brasil) with high UV index [3]. The results show that the app can modify behaviour to reduce erythema significantly (approx 30%) yet not decreasing vitamin D status.
Secondly, a randomised trial (n=100) in the UK has evaluated the efficacy of the app in real-world everyday conditions [4]. Preliminary results show good efficacy in supporting safe sunlight exposure to achieve personal daily recommended vitamin D synthesis (assuming oral equivalent of 400 IU/day as target).
Overall, clinical studies demonstrate that the app is safe to use and can effectively provide personalised real-time support to users for balancing risks and benefits of solar exposure.