Games Medical Health

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Video Games in Health Care

It’s becomes clear that games can have a positive effect on health, whether by helping to improve kids’ fitness levels, or by being used as physical rehabilitation tool for the elderly.

These are just two examples of video games used in health care in a recent post on BBC News: Video games get into shape.

In summary video games are used in:

  • A motivational and education tool towards a healthier lifestyle

  • Virtual reality games as a form of pain control for burns patients

  • Virtual environments can be very useful for treating patients suffering from “phantom limb” experiences following amputations

  • Virtual reality systems to help treat some of the many Iraq war veterans who return home with post-traumatic stress disorder

  • Games are being used to treat migraine, based on research into neurofeedback treatment techniques

  • Virtual clinic for training doctors and nurses to deal with the injuries caused by large-scale natural disasters or on the battlefield

  • Surgeons who frequently play ordinary videogames make more than a third fewer mistakes in simulations of laparoscopic surgery than those who don’t

You can read more about these roles of games in health care here

 

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Healthy Games


I like computer games, it keeps my mind of things, help me relax. It is suggested that in order to keep the brain fit as we age it is important to keep it stimulated. Use it or lose it applies to the mind as well as the muscles. It is also suggested recently that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower they had at birth.
Therefore these fun interactive anti-aging online memory games. To make your brain sweat. There is some advertising but Firefox captured just one pop-up. My favorite: Secret Files.

Or try Five Free Fun Games When Bored, my favorite: Mario Tetris

 

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Games for Health 2008

games

We’re beginning to finalize our program for Games for Health 2008 on May 8-9 in Baltimore.

We’re planning close to 40 sessions including sessions on epidemiology in World of Warcraft, Game Addicition, Nurse Training, Rehabitainment, and a special session with some of the biggest companies in healthcare.

Stay tuned there is much more to come but click through to see some of the great content planned thus far for our largest event yet!

This is the announcement for the new conference. A lot of interesting subjects will be presented in sessions about (computer) games in health care.

For example:

The Case of the Food Detective Game

In this session Kaiser Permanente presents a case study of its Amazing Food Detective Game (www.kp.org/amazingfooddetective). The game, aimed at children ages 9-10 and available to everyone at www.kp.org/amazingfooddetective, complements Kaiser Permanente’s nationally recognized childhood obesity clinical strategy. Based on a popular character from Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program, the Amazing Food Detective takes children through activities that show how to choose healthy foods and get more active. Children playing the game follow the routines of eight culturally diverse children whose activities or conditions would benefit from healthy food and exercise choices.

Ever wondered what exergaming was? So did I. Well go and see for yourself

The History of Exergaming
While exergaming is widely considered a recent emerging game genre it actually is a style of videogame that has existed for quite some time. Exergaming in fact has a close to 30 year history of development activity. In this well researched session attendees will be exposed to a deep history of exergaming products that offers some important insights into one of the most successful areas of the games for health field.

There is much much more on Games for Health

 

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Games for Health


There is a website for Games for Health:

The Serious Games Initiative founded Games for Health to develop a community and best practices platform for the numerous games being built for health care applications. To date the project has brought together researchers, medical professionals, and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health care and policy.

There is even an Annual Conference for Games for Health:
Games for Health Fourth Annual Conference 2008
May 8-9, 2008
Baltimore MD
Dates & Times:
Thursday, May 8 : 8:00am – 7:30pm (Including Breakfast and Reception)
Friday, May 9 : 8:00am – 4:30pm (Including Breakfast)
Location:
Baltimore Convention Center
One West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

And a research program:
$8.25 Million Research Program to Investigate Design Strategies and
Benefits of Interactive Games to Improve Health and Health Care