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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.


Games for Health Day Seattle, WA -- August 23, 2007

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 07-08-02

On August 23, the eve of Penny Arcade Expo the Games for Health Project is hosting a day long West Coast Meetup devoted to games and healthcare.

Games for Health Day Seattle is designed to provide a unique overview and introduction to this fast emerging approach to health communications, training, and therapy. This event features hands on demos of game projects aimed at health and healthcare and an array of interesting sessions.

This event is free to the first 50 participants who RSVP to rsvp@seriousgames.org. Thereafter attendance is $99.00 a person.

Games for Health Day Seattle runs from 9am-7pm including a networking reception and is located at the Hotel Deca (4507 Brooklyn Avenue, NE).

Games for Health Day is organized by the Games for Health Project (www.gamesforhealth.org) which is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Click through for the complete current schedule!

Our Tentative Schedule (as of 8/20/07) is as follows:

9:00am Ben Sawyer : Welcome & Why Games for Health?

The basics of the field of games for health and what it may offer health & healthcare

9:45am Dave Warhol : Designing Games for Health

10:30am 15 Minute Break

10:45am Casual Games : Serious Health? (PopCap Games)

What does the leader in casual gaming have to say about the intersection of games and health?

11:30am Jerry Henneghan : Virtual Heroes

12:00pm Lunch w/demos

During lunch get hands on time with a half-dozen or more health oriented game demos.

1:00pm University of Washington Related Projects

2:00pm Break (15 minutes)

2:15pm Yasmin Kafai : Why Whypox Matters

Research results on how online world Whyville teaches kids how viruses and vaccines work

2:45pm Judy Shasek : Grassroots Exergaming

What are the strategies for enabling exergaming in schools, local organizations, and in general at the grassroots level? The leader of Generation Fit shares a wealth of basic how-to's and results.

3:00pm Alan Au : Games for Health Japan - More then BrainAge

Japan's game community has produced a number of projects and products related to health & wellness. Beyond the BrainAge phenomenon lies exciting projects and software you've never heard about until now.

4:00pm Dominec Greco: Biofeedback & Videogames

BioFeedback systems offer opportunities to improve therapy for ADHD and other cognitive and stress-related disorders as well as new ways to look at training effectiveness. A leading expert in brainwave-based biofeedback systems discusses their health specific applications.

4:45pm Ben Sawyer : Turning Health in Games into Health With Games

Games have featured health-related content since the earliest days of gaming and over time there have been a number of interesting elements to how health is portrayed in games. By understanding this better we can look forward to how health might be further improved through games and elements of everyday games.

5:30pm End with Reception

Please join us for a casual after-meeting mixer