Meet the champions

Adriana is the Executive Director of TeenSmart International, a state-of-the-art, broad-scale NGO working through partnerships and technology to achieve adolescent health and well-being. Under her leadership, TeenSmart International has been awarded three international awards: Visionaries JK of the Inter-American Development Bank in 2018, NGOs with impact and scalability in Latin America by Viva Schmidheiny in 2018 and Exceptional Institution in Health of the Carlos Slim Foundation in 2016. Currently, as part of a digital transformation strategy of the NGO, she leads- together with her colleagues from TeenSmart- a technology team in Costa Rica and India that is working with Machine Learning.

Adriana holds a Master in Educational Technology from TEC Monterrey, a degree in Psychology from the University of Costa Rica, and a diploma in Innovative Projects Management in Health from INCAE. She is fellow of the "Central American HealthCare Initiative" program, and fellow of the Gratitude Program. She is a leader of NGOs with more than 10 years of experience in the socio-emotional health of adolescents.

Adriana is passionate about the emotional health of young people and has been working to promote their well-being for years. She has volunteered with children and adolescents since she was 15 years old and the learning - and great joy - of this service led her to choose a career in Psychology. In 2006, she wrote inclusion manuals for boys and girls with disabilities. In 2007, she started working in the Technology department of a university in Costa Rica as an instructional designer of courses for students to strengthen her job skills. Since she joined TeenSmart International 12 years ago, she managed to combine several passions: creating educational content promoting health and using technology as an innovative means of learning.

Adriana believes that the issue of health has always been a passionate topic for women, who for generations have been interested in caring for others and their self-care. She thinks attracting them through other women's experiences is always easier. Thus, we need to inspire younger generations of women not to be afraid of technology or science. And the experienced women in the health area also should combine their passion in health with the use of technology, as a practical, useful, functional tool that facilitates their work.

Throughout her career, Agustina was able to enrich vision of health information systems and technologies. She believes that her work experience in both public and private institutions, at the macro, meso and micromanagement level has given her the privilege of knowing the health system in-depth. Furthermore, it has allowed her to become aware of the challenges we face as managers of change in digital health.

Agustina is a pediatrician, with expertise in health informatics. She completed her hospital residency for both. She also did a Masters program in health informatics, which she is about to deliver her thesis. She took a course in data science in health, with R as a programming language during 2019. She also got a diploma in gender and health.

Agustina feels like an engine for change that she wants to see in digital health systems and in health itself. She believes that service design and user-centric design can make patients and healthcare professionals at the center to co-create systems that can truly add value and facilitate care.

-Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate training activities to disseminate the discipline-Regional programs: Proposals for exchange between health participants and to enhance learning experiences to solve impact challenges with technology-Creating a community to generate dissemination of discipline, to form networks-alliances, to deepen knowledge and skills and to publicize the opportunities offered by the field of digital health-Mentoring programs-Thematic conferences with spaces designed and group dynamics so that participants know referrals, are interested and interact with different applications of technology and information systems in health

Andrea has managed to achieve with lucidity and moral honesty and rational knowledge of the social, economic and health reality the following achievements.
a) Generate Digital Ecosystems
b) Educate in Change and for Change in times of Pandemic.
c) Justify historicity in the Digital Health category.
d) Sign cogeneration agreements with agencies and governments.
e) integrate gender support panels.
f) write and subscribe in editorial and social networks courageous opinion about digital reality.
g) Learn about ethics in transformation
h) Include everyone in the advantages and benefits of which she was creditor, avoiding exposing collaborators and assistants.

Transformative Governance of Data in Public Health Inter-social dynamism in ecosystems and trans public health agencies. An expert consultant in knowledge management for change in digital transformation. Inclusion of vulnerable populations and effective access to the resource. Her area of interests cover access to data, human rights, and the influence of transdigitality.

For Andrea, digital transformation is the appropriate place to recreate the best ecosystems of people that use technology for improving lives of others.

"Listen (to women), Women have a lot to say and we to learn"