Roberta Piccinini, Vice-President mHealth Technologies srl (Bologna): “We took up a great challenge following a meeting with Eng. Tacconi and the group of researchers from the University of Bologna, so that in 2014 mHealth Technologies srl was founded,” Roberta Piccinini, vice-president and administration manager, told us. We ask her how the project was originated, a truly successful example of collaboration between association, enterprises and university: “The birth of mHealth Tecnhologies srl stems from the meeting of a group of entrepreneurs associated with CNA, belonging to the INNOVANET group, united by the conviction of the importance of networking to develop innovative projects, and a research group of the University of Bologna engaged in the development of digital solutions applicable in the healthcare field.”
In the context of a European Call for Proposals of the 7th Framework Programme that had led to the development of two prototypes, the entrepreneurs, following tests and market analysis, then decided to set up the company and industrialise the products, obtaining certification for medical devices and CE marking.
In particular, 2 medical devices have been developed:
– A product for analysing movement, aimed at supporting the diagnosis of various neurogenerative pathologies.
– A product – the virtual physiotherapist – capable of guiding the patient in a personalised motor activity: medical studies have in fact shown that walking slows down the development of neurogenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
And she adds, “when we saw the positive feedback from patients on the tests carried out with the prototypes, we entrepreneurs could not fail to invest in a sector that, in addition to having an important potential for economic development, gave us great satisfaction given the social utility of the products for the well-being and health of patients.”
Thus, Roberta Piccinini reminds us how many companies have a social responsibility through their projects and products involving important social implications.
Discover more about CNA Emilia-Romagna:
CNA, Confederazione Nazionale dell’Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa – a business Association that represents artisans, traders, professionals, self-employed workers, micro and small enterprises, pensioners and citizens. In Emilia-Romagna Region, CNA is structured in 10 territorial and 234 operational offices, employing 2,562 people and representing more than 150,000 subjects that give rise to a community of about 714,000 people. CNA Emilia-Romagna and ECHAlliance are together partners in the Interreg Europe NOTRE project that aims to improve policy instruments that support innovative new product and service development for SMEs in the field of Silver Economy. In this context, CNA Emilia-Romagna is presenting one of its companies developing innovative solutions in the healthcare sector operating in its territory, the company mHealth Technologies (Italy).
