Shares in Sensyne Health (SENS:AIM) advanced 5% to 135p on Monday after the clinical development company announced its CVm-Health+ app is to be used by the University of Oxford in a study evaluating the feasibility of new point-of-care tests for regular asymptomatic testing.
The iOS and Android app will provide users with study information and training materials as well as recording health stats and capture a time-stamped photograph of every point-of-care test to provide independent classification.
TESTING IN THE COMMUNITY
The FACTS study was developed by Oxford in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health England and Durham University to test how the Lateral Flow Test (LFT) technology could be used as part of broader Covid-19 testing. FACTS stands for Feasibility and Acceptability of community Covid-19 rapid Testing Strategies.
The LFT has already been validated and undergone clinical testing, and is currently the go-to technology used in Covid-19 testing. These tests require a swab of the nose or throat which is inserted into a tube of liquid which produces a result within a few minutes.
It is thought that asymptomatic cases, that is, people who are infectious but do not show symptoms, are one reason the virus spreads so quickly. The idea is to see if the LFT’s are able to detect enough people in the community with the virus before they show any symptoms.
On a voluntary basis staff and students within particular areas of the University will offered the LFT’s and be shown how to take the test and to record the results using the NHS Test and Trace programme. Testing will be completed over a period of several weeks.
Professor Richard Hobbs at Oxford University commented: ‘The FACTS study will help us understand for the first time how we might deploy these simple to use and rapid diagnostic tests at an unprecedented scale. A key element to the study is the digital capture of study data and test results that will be used to assess whether repeat self-testing is an option.’
