Tech tools for healthier kids

Can tech tools help child obesity?
Skåne’s fattest 4-year olds may find this true. In a new project master students prototype pulse readers for preschool kids to keep them moving.

 In Örkelljunga municipality, we find Skåne’s fattest 4-year olds. A multi-helix project called Hälsoförskolan (Health for preschool) was started to help children live healthier and leaner lives and includes the municipality, companies, MTT and Malmö University to name a few.

–We have many things going on in this project, one of them are prototyping technical tools, says Ursula Hultkvist Bengtsson, CEO and founder of Multihelix and the associated life science think tank (MTT) in Lund, Sweden.

– For example, when the kids go out to play, they will each put their hands on a pulse-reader and again when they come back. A raised pulse is a big win for these kids.
Needless to say, the international interest for Health for preschool (Hälsoförskolan) is big and recently included new partners in the United Kingdom.

Within the Multihelix projects, the mobile cluster Mobile Heights acts as a gateway to businesses that provide solutions in this area. An example of solutions provided by one of Mobile Heights member companies, is an interactive tool for school kids, which makes it possible for parents to take part of their childrens’ day and emotional state via an app.

– Technology should always be a tool for humans to connect and live richer, healthier lives, says Ursula.

Ursula saw that many of our issues and troubles to adjust society to health challenges could be lifted and perhaps solved with a multi-helix approach:

– All parts of society are also parts of the solution. The Multihelix think tank was immediately filled with all types of societal players for life science when it started fall 2016. It has become obvious that the old-fashioned principles not solve big and complex problems. What the UN puts into print regarding the sustainability goals is so important – now it is time for action!

Photo: Fat Burger by André Faria Gomes, CC BY 2.0