MARIA RENATA GUARNERI
Project Manager at Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Pegaso
BIOGRAPHY
Maria Renata Guarneri is Project Manager in the Project Development - International Area at FPM. Before joining FPM she was Principal Technologist and later Innovation Director at CREATE-NET, responsible for the centre overall research organisation and research strategic directions, including EU funding aspects. She has been fully involved in EU funded research since 1990 when she joined the RACE Industrial Consortium in Brussels to represent Italtel. In 1999 Renata joined Siemens, first in the Marketing and Strategies Department, then in the R&D Department of the Mobile Radio Business Unit. Recently Renata has been involved mainly in project dealing with ICT for Health and she is the project coordinator of PEGASO Fit 4 Future, dealing with prevention of obesity in teen-agers.
MOBILE SOLUTIONS FOR PREVENTION IN HEALTHCARE
Obesity and other lifestyle-related illness are among the top healthcare challenges in Europe. Obesity alone accounts for up to 7% of healthcare costs in the EU. Obesity in younger age is an alarming predictor for obesity in adulthood, but also entails short and long term health complications.
Knowing how to stay healthy is not enough to motivate individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles, but relevant progress can be achieved through the use of incentives delivered through a combination of processes and mobile technologies.
Recognizing the effectiveness of this approach, PEGASO Fit 4 Future has develop a multi-dimensional cross-disciplinary ICT system that exploits wearable sensors, mobile apps and game mechanics to motivate behavioral changes towards healthier lifestyles and prevent overweight and obesity in the younger population.
PEGASO is currently being piloted with over 300 adolescents in three EU member states (Spain, Italy, UK).