Project description
Embodiment technology for obesity treatment
Obesity represents a major health, economic and societal burden as it increases the risks for physical illnesses as well as healthcare costs. Existing treatments focus on the behavioural change of the obese patient and have limited and usually non-permanent results. Telemedicine and some virtual reality (VR) solutions have recently emerged as alternatives. However, they too are focussing on lifestyle and behavioural changes in a VR environment, failing to achieve permanent results. The EU-funded SOCRATES project is proposing conVRself, which is a VR platform that helps patients tackle the root causes of their obesity. The project will adapt the conVRself technology for use in a clinical setting. It will demonstrate the efficacy of embodiment technology and use conVRself as a proof of concept for other behavioural disorders.
Objective
Context
According to the WHO, approximately 23% of women and 20% of men are classified as obese. Approximately 69 billion euros is spent on healthcare issues related to dealing with overweight or obese patients in Europe every year.
Obesity not only increases the likelihood of many physical illnesses, such as diabetes and coronary artery disease but can also provoke mental health issues such as stress and depression.
There is a substantial unmet need to help reduce both the economic and public health burden of obesity.
Problem: Current treatments for obesity have limited effectiveness.
Treatments for obesity focus on trying to develop a behaviour change in the patients, predominantly trying to change their diet or take more exercise. However, these treatments have shown to be largely ineffective with most patients failing to lose weight in the medium to long term.
Telemedicine has been proposed as an alternative to this, with some Virtual Reality solutions beginning to penetrate the market. However, these solutions are essentially the same lifestyle behaviour change treatments in a VR environment. Over time, the patient returns to their previous weight.
Solution
conVRself is a VR platform that uses embodiment to treat obesity, by allowing the patient to see and interact with themselves. This allows them to target three aspects that are inherent with severe obesity:
- Recognition
- Self stigmatisation
- Self determination
conVRself allows patients to tackle the root causes of their obesity, rather than simply treating the symptoms.
Project Scope
SOCRATES will:
- Adapt the conVRself technology for treating obesity in a clinical setting
- validate the efficacy of embodiment technology in treating obesity
- use conVRself as a proof of concept for using embodiment techniques as a treatment for other behavioural disorders
- disseminate the results to promote the use of embodiment technology as an effective healthcare solution for treating behavioural conditions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine endocrinology diabetes
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software software applications virtual reality
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition obesity
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
IA - Innovation action
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-ICT-2018-20
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08015 Barcelona
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.