Welcome to ARC Francesco Innocenti

Tell us about your background

I have around 20 years of experience in epidemiology and real-world evidence analysis, applied to both public health initiatives and private sector research. My main fields of interest are infectious diseases, lifestyles and addictions, use and abuse of legal and non-legal substances, and pharmaco-epidemiology.

I have been responsible for the Annual Epidemiological Report of Infectious Diseases in Tuscany (Italy), coordinating a team of around 50 experts with a multidisciplinary background. This experience gave me the privilege to share and acquire expertise as a Seconded National Expert at the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control for four years, collaborating with WHO, EU commission and Member states from the beginning of the Pandemic to produce guidelines, reports and papers submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

I like to be involved in all phases of the analyses, from writing the statistical analysis plan to interpreting the results and collaborating to define the public health key messages.

What will you be doing at ARC?

Using data from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care-Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), ARC developed and improved a Health Assessment Tool (HAT) integrating five indicators connected with the number of chronic diseases, physical and cognitive performance, personal and instrumental activities of daily living. The main focus of my work will on externally validating the HAT using ad hoc Swedish primary care data.

I also plan to improve the automation process of the algorithm behind the HAT in order to make it more easily accessible to a range of potential users.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I'm Italian, and like many of us, my big passion is soccer. I played at a semi-professional level in Italy until I was 34, and I had the incredible chance to play friendly matches against some top-tier Italian teams. One of the coolest moments was facing the team from my hometown, Florence. It was amazing to go up against some of my childhood idols, though as expected, we got totally crushed! 

Soccer has been a huge part of my life, and it’s taught me so many skills that I’ve carried into my job, such as teamwork, respect for others, self-irony, and that special feeling of being part of a group. Plus, having been team captain quite a few times, I picked up some leadership skills along the way too.

I also enjoy running through Stockholm's beautiful forests.

Last, but not least, I have a wife and two kids, and I try to spend as much quality time with them as possible.