Digital Health

The frühstArt (Early, cross-sectoral, outreach and family-centered obesity prevention) project aims to develop and implement a new form of care for overweight children aged 3 to 6 in Germany. The project is funded by the Innovation Fund of the German Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA).

Childhood obesity is a growing problem – in Germany, about 11 percent of girls and over 7 percent of boys in this age group are overweight. The project wants to support affected families in promoting responsible lifestyles early on to ensure a healthy weight development of their children.

frühstArt focuses on strengthening health factors at the family level and improving cross-sectoral networking in the healthcare system. The participating partners include public health insurance companies, the German Social Security, pediatric and adolescent medical practices, as well as municipal and non-profit institutions. Funding is provided by the Innovation Fund of the German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA).

The service targets families who speak German or Turkish and is free of charge. It includes a risk screening for childhood obesity and offers the opportunity to participate in the frühstArt care model, which includes intensive, family-centered counseling. Coaches play a central role in this process by helping families to establish healthy routines in everyday life.

The effectiveness of the frühstArt care model is scientifically evaluated to verify its efficacy. Both, interested families in the North Rhine region and pediatricians and adolescent doctors, can contact the frühstArt team to get more information and to participate.

Fraunhofer FIT develops in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University an e-health platform that includes online applications targeted towards the different user groups of the project: pediatricians, families, coaches and nurses. These applications have been developed by capturing the user requirements of the different groups and were evaluated from a usability perspective. This platform complies with the requirements of the European Health Data Space and guarantees its interoperability through the implementation of the latest e-health data models and terminology standards.