Sessions at Games for Health 2008
Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-02-18We're are nearly final with our expected program for Games for Health 2008 on May 8-9 in Baltimore.
Please click through to see many of our exciting sessions!
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.
Our final program will add about 18 more sessions currently being summarized to be announced later next week.
Our Schedule
We are still adding sessions but many confirmed sessions are summarized below.
Overall Schedule
Pre-Conference Workshops : May 7 - 9:00am - 5:00pm
Day 1 : Games for Health : May 8 - 9:00am - 6:00pm (reception to follow)
Day 2 : Games for Health : May 9 - 9:00am - 4:00pm
Breakfast available at 8:00am all three days
Lunch served all three days at 12:30pm
Current Session Content
Health P[l]ayers: Healthcare Organizations Assessing Games for Health Opportunities
Speakers to be announced
The Games for Health Conference was established several years ago without the involvement of any organizations involved in our healthcare system. At the 2008 Games for Health conference, premier conference sponsor Humana is organizing the first panel bringing together several health insurance providers each of who have demonstrated their interest in Games for Health in different ways.
In this exclusive panel representatives from several of the largest health insurance plan providers in the United States are convening in a plenary session to detail the game efforts they've launched to date and their view about what is needed for the future to use Games and Games technology to solve critical problems in health they and others are facing.
Playing our Way to Better Drugs
Zoran Popovic, University of Washington
This session is a case presentation of The Fold It! Project.
The Fold It! project is about engaging a large amount of people to -- together with computers -- solve some of the most important scientific questions of today. We are developing a massively distributed biochemistry game that will enable future key discoveries in molecular science. As some background, in the past few decades biochemists have discovered that practically all fundamental molecular design problems are about the geometric relationships of complex molecules.
We are casting molecular folding problems as a massively distributed 3D puzzle game, and plan to enable players use their computers to discover the solutions to current open scientific problems, including cures for cancer, AIDS, and discovery of novel biofuels. The fundamental idea is to do user-assisted optimization for protein design by formulating and presenting this process as a competitive game played by thousands of people. We claim that, when designed well, people will play it for a number of important reasons: it is fun (it looks like a fun 3D puzzle and not like some biochemistry textbook), it is addicting (we're employing several techniques from casual games to attract the widest possible demographic), it is competitive (getting a top score is a huge motivator), it is collaborative (they can work together in teams to solve a problem), and it has deep impact (players want to get credit for the drug that cures cancer).
Our work aims at answering a number of fundamental questions. How does one develop games to maximize human ability to discover novel proteins beyond what is currently possible with computation-only approaches? What are the guiding principles of successful molecular design game? How to we generalize game-development principles to the widest possible range of biochemical problems? How do we learn from the way people play the game to "distill" their strategies towards stronger automated approaches? A lofty goal for the entire project is to enable game players to win a Nobel Prize for their discoveries!
In this session Zoran Popovic, one of the creators of Fold It! will present the story behind the game and the underlying project and show the results of early testing of the first dozen protein folding puzzles the Fold It! project has worked on.
A Randomized Controlled Study of the Effectiveness of Casual Video Games in Reducing Stress and Improving Mood
Carmen Russoniello, Eastern Carolina University
This session features speakers from East Carolina University Psychophysiology Lab who will present findings on the effectiveness of PopCap’s casual video games in decreasing stress and improving mood. This study tested whether playing three popular PopCap video games; Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Bookworm Adventure and Peggle could change the autonomic and central nervous systems consistent with decreased stress and improved mood. Preliminary data supports these hypotheses so far and more complete data and findings will be presented during the talk. The study included one hundred twenty total subjects (30 subjects playing 3 different games and 30 control subjects) who were included in the data analysis.
A Game to Change Aids Behavior
Leslie Snyder, University of Connecticut
This session looks at a project based at the University of Connecticut is working to develop an online downloadable game that focuses on behavior change for sexually transmitted infections among inner-city African-American and Hispanic youth 18-26 years old. This effort has the challenge of producing not only an engaging game that can contribute to a positive behavior change outcome but also a game where the gameplay and the messaging are set in a proper cultural context.
Attendees to this session will get updates on the progress of the project and how it is handling its specific target population and the challenges faced making a game that is significant to its goals.
Case Study: Food Fury - A Casual Game for Nutrition
Cynthia Phelps
In 2007, a partnership was formed between the University of Texas School of Public Health, the School of Health Information Science, and Archimage Inc. to explore the potential of casual games to be used for health education and behavior change. We believe casual games and game environments similar to Club Penguin or Neopets can be designed to teach kids about health and to expose then to a variety of interactions designed to change behavior. The partnership was awarded a grant from the AETNA Foundation to provide seed funding to create a prototype casual game and complete a pilot evaluation.
Obesity was chosen as the main health issue to address because recent research indicates it is increasing among children and adolescents (Hedley et al., 2004; Ogden et al., 2006). This increase is alarming, as excess weight is associated with the development or exacerbation of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (Must et al., 1999; NHLBI, 1998). Children in grades 3-5 are the targeted for the intervention because children at this age have the skills to play online casual games and they are beginning to make some of their own food choices. Targeting children is key because overweight or obese children have a higher chance of growing up to be overweight or obese adults. Establishing good health behaviors early in life can have lasting positive effects.
Our test game, Food Fury, was designed to lay the groundwork for kids to make healthy food choices. To complete a level in the game, children must to make chains of food icons, by matching like foods. The foods are coded using the format “go, slow, whoa” Where go foods are healthy foods you should eat frequently and whoa foods are high in fat and/or sugar and should be eaten infrequently. This categorization was developed by faculty at the school of public health for the CATCH program, a school based intervention that has shown to be effective in improving cardiovascular health.
After development was completed small sample (n=32) of children in grades 3-5 were presented the game to provide a bit of assessment and user testing. During this presentation we will share information about the design of the project, the game itself, and what our testing tells us about the ability to use shorter casual gameplay as a health education and behavior change tool.
Physician: Game Thyself - Using Game Worlds to Improve Dr. Communication Skills
Fred Kron, Noah Falstein
Medical Cyberworlds is a startup in the process of creating an online multiplayer game to train doctors to communicate more effectively with their patients. Dr. Fred Kron, the founder and CEO of the company and Noah Falstein, the lead designer will present an update on the state of the project and discuss the challenging process of encouraging effective collaboration between physicians, academics, and game developers.
Zyked! The Gamified Workout Community
Tom Soderlund
Imagine if the principles behind games and competitive game communities were applied to everyday workouts and mobile devices. That's the principle behind Zyked - a set of online and mobile services designed to be for working out what Xbox Live! is for videogames. In this case presentation Zyked's creator Tom Soderlund will present the basics behind Zyked and report on how the first batch of user tests are performing. Soderlund will also present how Zyked intends to work with a multitude of portable devices including iPod, Nike+, and mobile phone platforms. Attendees to this session will not only get a preview of Zyked but also understand the motivation properties behind such things as high score communities, competitive game ladders, achievement point systems, all of which are staples to the motivation mixture of modern day videogaming.
Effects of Narrative, Nurturing, and Game-Play in an Action-Adventure Health Game
Debra Lieberman, PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
How might the presence of a dramatic story line influence the appeal and health-related impacts of an action-oriented health game? Likewise, how are players impacted when they nurture characters in the game who have health problems? And also, if narrative and nurturing are minimized in the game so that players focus on pure game-play instead, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach in achieving health-related outcomes? This session will report findings from a study of the cancer game, Re-Mission, which was modified into five versions with varying levels of narrative and nurturing. A randomized study of 488 young adults compared the impacts of the five game versions on players' cancer-related knowledge, attitudes, emotions, self-concepts, self-efficacy, information seeking, and intentions to prevent and treat this disease. Implications of the findings will be discussed.
Roundtable: Tricks-of-the-Trade for Researchers
Moderator: Debra Lieberman, PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
This session offers researchers a chance to share questions, ideas, and advice related to the design and implementation of research on health games. Researchers at all levels of expertise are welcome to join the discussion. Topics may include finding relevant theory and current research, techniques for literature searching, qualitative and quantitative research methods, development of stimulus materials and games to study, finding validated measures, recruiting study participants, in-game data collection, physiological measurement during game play, patient protocols, techniques of observation, collecting survey data online, etc. What research tips and tricks do you have to share?
First It Must Be Fun And Other Key Learnings:
Ellen L. LaPointe, HopeLab | Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
In April 2006 HopeLab released Re-Mission, a video game shown through a randomized, controlled trial to:
· improve young people’s sense of power and control over their cancer;
· improve their treatment adherence;
· increase their knowledge about their disease.
HopeLab is conducting follow-up research to elucidate the “active ingredients” in the game that led to these compelling, positive health outcomes.
In addition to our ongoing work in cancer, we embarked on an ambitious initiative called Ruckus Nation to help address the detrimental effects of obesity and sedentary behavior in kids. A global, online idea competition, Ruckus Nation successfully garnered product ideas that would be effective in increasing physical activity in middle school-aged young people. 429 teams from 37 countries worldwide participated in the competition, culminating in a Grand Prize event in San Francisco in March, 2008.
Lessons learned have been myriad and continue to inform HopeLab’s approach to harnessing the power of games and technology to lead to positive health behaviors in young people. The combination of rigorous research, innovative uses of technology and direct involvement of kids themselves to create powerful, positive outcomes will be explored.
During this session Ms. LaPointe will discuss the outcomes of the Ruckus Nation competition, key findings in our Re-Mission follow-up research, and emerging themes in these efforts that have broad applicability to the field of serious games development and research.
MindHabits: The Development of an Emotion Trainer Game for Stress Reduction
Mark Baldwin, McGill University
There is currently an enormous opportunity for the creation of serious games to foster psychological self-development. With the help of students at McGill University, and (published, peer-reviewed) research it has been shown that emotion training games can help people train their minds toward positive and away from negative social feedback - leading to increased self-confidence and reduced stress.
The session will start by briefly describing our research and the thinking behind it. Some of our studies focus on the psychological principle of activation, in which bringing to mind specific patterns of thought, such as might be provided by a supportive friend, helps people be more self-accepting when under stress. Other studies examine the principle of inhibition, in which practicing the mental operation of disengaging from social threat can help people deal with stress in the workplace, leading to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Still other studies examine the principle of association, in which leading a person to associate their own name and other self-relevant information with images of social acceptance can increase their self-esteem and reduce their feelings of aggressiveness.
There will then be a demonstration of the new MindHabits Trainer, which was awarded $1.3 Million in development funding as the winner of the Great Canadian Video Game Competition. This commercial product, based closely on the psychological research, has recently been released to millions of casual gamers via Oberon Media, and is in development for other platforms and undergoing translation into several languages for worldwide distribution. We will demonstrate the game and give an overview of the commercialization process, including plans for partnership with other developers.
Robotic Therapy Tiles: Playing Your Way to Health
Robotic therapy tiles are developed from the field of modular robotics brought into use in everyday life. In Denmark, the modular robotic technology is already, in the shape of tiles, of great utility value in important areas like play and playgrounds, as stimulation of people with autism, rehabilitation of physical injuries and in pulse training in relation to heart diseases, for sports training, for IT development in Africa, and for music development.
As one example, the Danish modular robotics has been used extensively for rehabilitation, as reported by CNN and WIRED. Modular robotics in the form of robotic therapy tiles is a revolutionising tool in therapy, and is applicable for different forms of therapeutic rehabilitation and at the same time gives unique possibilities for documentation of therapeutic treatment. It is highly motivating due to immediate feedback and fun, interesting games. It has been tested with many different user groups such as cardiac patients, lung patients, people with sports injuries, autistic children, mentally handicapped children, etc. Each therapeutic treatment has its own appropriate control program or game. The successful tests in the rehabilitation sector suggest that with small changes, such modular robotics may also be developed into products for the consumer market.
The modular robotic tiles differ from other interactive surfaces and game surfaces in the modularity, the possibility for users to modify the physical shape, the easy setup, the possibility of exclusion of external host computer, the self-contained energy source, the wireless communication (local and global), and the individual games. Any therapist, patient or child can set up the tiles to become a physical game surface within one minute.
For instance, the robotic therapy tiles have been used for the last two years for rehabilitation of cardiac patients (at the hospital Sygehus Fyn Svendborg and at Rehabilitation Centre Odense). For cardiac patients, the games on the tiles may motivate a rise in pulse to appropriate levels. Physiotherapist Tonny Jaeger Pedersen, Sygehus Fyn Svendborg hospital says: “the individual training, which the intelligent tiles allow for, is really an advantage. Motivation and competition is the fuel which make us do the most – regardless of whether being healthy or a patient.” We may learn from such indications to also develop games, for instance, for knee operated exercises that demand the correct movement of the knee and the correct force exerted to play the game, for elderly play and games that support balance training, etc.
Also, the robotic tiles have been used successfully for cognitive rehabilitation, e.g. for children with autism.
In all of the cases, the robotic modules can be moved around and combined again to change the robot’s function (the play, the game). Thereby it is possible to create much more flexible interaction surfaces through the modular composition. Within a near future, the technological conquests will bring playful modular robotics much further in numerous applications e.g. in arcade games, toys, game engines, music, rehabilitation, architecture, fitness training, sports.
WIRED article: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/10/therapy_tiles
Robotic therapy tiles: http://www.e-robot.dk/therapy.html
A Game Developer & A Researcher Walk Into A Bar Together...
Tom Baranowski, Baylor College of Medicine, Debbe Thompson, USDA/Baylor College of Medicine, Richard Buday, ArchImage
To many the unlikely collaborations between people who build games and those that research topics like behavioral psychology often sounds like the start to a bad joke. Hopefully however, such omens are non-existent. In order for that to be true its important for us all to examine beyond the output of such collaborations and put our eyes on the inner-workings of the collaboration itself. In this interesting talk Richard Buday of ArchImage, Tom Baranowski of Baylor College of Medicine, and Deborah Thompson of USDA/Baylor College of Medicine will talk candidly about how across two projects researchers and developers had to learn to work with each other to produce the games for each of their respective projects.
Attendees to this session will get a chance to pull back the curtain and learn about the ups and downs of two different worlds colliding and how that can affect their projects positively and negatively.
Furthermore, the session will discuss how the experiences from one project helped advance the second. This offers offers the ability to see what adjustments best carried forward.
Should “Videogame Addiction” be in DSM-V?
Jack Kuo, Promises Treatment Centers
In June of 2007 the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Science and Public Health voted on whether or not to consider “videogame addiction” a formal diagnosis. After much controversy, the AMA ultimately determined that further research was necessary before a decision could be made and urged the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to consider including the diagnosis in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
This presentation will examine the existing evidence for and against consideration of “videogame addiction” as a formal diagnosis and work to provide some reasoned background about the topic in an ef. Attendees to this session will learn the extent to which “videogame addiction” conforms to currently accepted scientific definitions of addiction. Also covered will be the epidemiology of “videogame addiction.”, a proposed diagnostic criteria for “videogame addiction.”, existing and suggested modalities for treatment of “videogame addiction.” and the evidence-based support for inclusion of “videogame addiction” as a formal diagnosis.
Go for the Burn: Designing Body-Movement Controlled Video Games to Maximise Energy Expenditure
Alasdair Thin, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
Active video games (“exergames”) are now widely available due to recent advances in game technology including the development of low cost body-movement sensitive controllers. However, it is not clear which factors are important in determining the exercise intensity a player needs to produce to effectively play a particular game. In order to maximise the potential health benefits of exergaming, there is a clear need to understand the how to elicit an exercise intensity towards the upper rather than the lower end of the aerobic training zone i.e. What makes a “good exergame”?
A series of experiments have been conducted in our laboratory over several years into a number of different body-movement controlled video games from a variety of different genres (martial arts, dance, fitness/aerobic, boxing and fitness/combat). Primary measures included heart rate and oxygen consumption and were intended to assess the level of physical exertion required to play the games. The results indicated that the exertional demands of the different games varied from moderate through to vigorous exercise and provide experimental support for active video games having a role in helping to promote and maintain a physically active lifestyle.
In addition to the cardiorespiratory measurements, a range of other factors that were postulated to affect the level of exertion were also assessed including hand-eye coordination, postural stability, training in martial arts and level of aerobic fitness. Comparing the results between the various genres of games reveals the factors that influence the level of energy expenditure each game demands.
A review of these studies will be presented and the key factors determining energy expenditure highlighted in order to guide future active game design from a health benefit perspective.
The Creation of DITTO : Diversionary Therapy Device : A Paediatric Preparation & Distraction Game System For Medical Procedures.
Kate Miller, Stuart Pegg Paediatric Burns Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australi
This session covers the development of Ditto, a multi-modal distraction device was conceptualised from literature that suggested hand held games were effective but lacked perspective for the younger child, and studies that showed the immersive qualities of VR were able to remove the anxiety and pain context from procedures in adults but may not be suitable for younger children. The Ditto console and content aimed for the middle ground between these two available technologies to enable appropriate access of younger children to the benefits of “games for health”. Prototypes were developed from the collaboration of medical and developmental experts together with designers and technologists to form Ditto. These prototypes were then assessed in randomised clinical trials to further develop the concept, and have also shown Ditto’s efficacy in significantly reducing pain scores, during burn and orthopaedic medical procedures, beyond that of hand held games and historical tools of TV and toys. The clinical usability of the device has also been assessed with positive feedback from children, caregivers and a multi-disciplinary team.
Ditto’s success is in the easy to manipulate multi-modal console, and uniquely developed multi-sensory content, including interactive stories, preparation for procedure stories, and games, which are based on developmental and clinical perspectives [6]. The future sees rapid content development for specific hospitals, clinics and procedures that in-scripts the facilities own pain philosophies into the content which creates a continuum of care that ensures efficacy and consistency across individual centres.
This talk will focus on the Diversionary Therapy concept (ditto prototype) and provide an overview of the multidisciplinary collaboration which was required to ensure the concept met scientific, clinical, patient and business needs.
The World of Warcraft Blood Disease : Epidemiological Observations and Findings
Nina Fefferman, Tufts University
In September 2005 designers and programmers at Blizzard Entertainment created new game content for Blizzard's mega-hit massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft that inadvertently unleashed an in-game epidemic. Later called the Corrupted Blood Disease, this virtual virus event was well covered in game and technical press but little else about this event and what insights it might offer to epidemiologists has been presented.
The disease started when designers created a new boss character named Hakkar the Soulflayer who was called a blood god. The idea was to have players who engaged Hakkar to be affected by a spell that would called "Corrupted Blood" that would cause 250-300 points of damage in a few seconds. Consequently anyone with the disease would grab it if they were close to an infected party. The idea however was that the "virus" like spell wouldn't exist anywhere outside Hakkar's immediate vicinity. Except it got out based on ways characters exited their battle with Hakkar and once it did...
In this exciting talk Nina Fefferman of Tufts University will present her work looking into the Corrupted Blood Disease as an epidemiological event. The talk will cover what knowledge of the event exists outside of Blizzard, developed of World of Warcraft , and based on interviews with Blizzard staff. While this is not the first game-based epidemiological event in a game or virtual world the Corrupted Blood Disease event is one of the most famous and interesting to date and provides an outline of the roles games can play in improving our understanding and possible responses to such events in the future.
Exergyms must be more then glorified arcades
Dr. Ernie Medina, co-founder Xrtainment Zone
Dr. Ernie Medina and his partners launched their first Xtrainment Zone in California last year. A year later Dr. Medina will present a case study of the build-up, launch, and post-launch experience of one of the first exergaming focused retail businesses in the United States. Key to this discussion is the story of the planning and efforts that went into avoiding the creation of a "room filled with exergames" that would amount to little more then being a glorified arcade. Attendees to this session will learn about how Xrtainment Zone developed programs, classes, and approaches that provide the frameworks that allow them to succeed in bringing the experiences, fun, and innovation of exergaming to kids, seniors, and adults around their Southern Califronia location.
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.
The case study will discuss how the game was developed, how Kaiser has positioned the game towards its goals for the game's target population, and the work Kaiser has done to get the game distributed and then played. Audience members will get a chance to see the game in action and ask questions about its design and its post-launch results.
Diabetes in Context : How We Used High End Trivia Games to Target Adults with Diabetes
Tom Hunter, Glymetrix
All games for health deal with context in how they will be used, who plays them, and the disease(s) they might target. In this talk Tom Hunter of Glymetrix will speak about how they specifically built their diabetes management game to target adults with diabetes. Glymetrix not only targeted adults because they are a large patient population but also for aspects of adult cognition and how games fit into adult life. More importantly, the software attempts to put diabetes in better context for their players by both teaching them about the disease and its lifestyle management issues but by assessing them as well and thus creating a contextual profile of them as a patient which can feed future areas of play that increasingly target issues players must master to improve their life.
This case study talk provides specific insights into the choices made by Glymetrix to achieve the goals it had for managing patient diabetes. By understanding exactly how Glymetrix set its targets and then specifically design game features (including the genre of game chosen, game content, and feedback features) attendees can better understand how they can approach similar situations for areas of disease management that they may be targeting.
History of Starlight
When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, the day-to-day joys of childhood take a back seat to the rigors of treatment and hospitalization. For more than two decades, Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation has dedicated itself to improving the quality of life for children with serious medical conditions by providing entertainment, education and family activities that help them cope with the pain, fear and isolation of prolonged illness.
Many of these activities throughout Starlight's history have involved the use of videogames. In this overview session representatives from Starlight will walk attendees through the history of all of its considerable games for health work. This includes videogame programs for fundraising, general entertainment for children in hospitals and especially programs to help sick children understand common hospital procedures and manage illnesses such as cancer, sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, asthma, IBD and kidney disease. Research conducted on select Starlight Starbright programs indicates patient benefits include reduced pain, greater compliance with treatment, and an increased sense of peer support, self efficacy, knowledge, responsibility for disease management, and ability to cope.
As one of the true pioneers in the use of games for health Starlight offers a chance for attendees to gain insight from years of effort, research, and results.
Games for Health Brainstorming Workshop: Case Study.
Dave Warhol, Realtime Associates
In this session, David Warhol of Realtime Associates, the game studio that helped develop Re-Mission(TM) for HopeLab, will demonstrate and discuss the design of “Ace’s Adventure”, a game about traffic safety for children from grades K to 3. The first version of this game has been completed and is going into the field for research on its efficacy. Once the game has been presented, attendees in the audience will be invited to discuss what a hypothetical “Version 2.0” of the game could be, and to discuss how to take the design approach of the game into entirely different subject matter domains. The purpose of this exercise is to host a live version of the type of brainstorming and discussion sessions that take place in the early stages of games for health projects. Attendees to this session will not only get an overview of a novel game for health design, but will also expose themselves to the trials and tribulations of thinking about how to make games achieve their desired results.
Health in Games
Ben Sawyer, Games for Health Project
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.
During this session which has been presented at previous Games for Health meetings, the co-founder of the Games for Health Project, Ben Sawyer will provide yet another update on this ongoing catalogue and analysis of how health is presented and designed into commercially released videogames.
PDwii: Using Novel Interfaces to Promote Physical Rehabilitation & Achieve Quantifiable Results
Red Hill Studios
Demonstrates the technical feasibility, therapeutic effectiveness, and safety of an innovative computer-based training program aimed at developing stronger gait and balance for patients with Parkinson's Disease. PDwii is currently being developed by Red Hill Studios and the UCSF School of Nursing, with funding by the NIH. Quantifiable results are being used to track patient progress and are being integrated into the patient's overall regime. Results will be used to benefit further innovations in the field of games for health.
Games for Health Japan : Hands On
Toru Fujimoto, Serious Games Japan
At previous Games for Health events comprehensive reports on activity from one of videogaming's biggest markets and sources of development have been presented showcasing an amazing amount of work and activity originating from Japan. This year we are reprising this important informational session with a twist. Starting with a presentation the session will update attendees on the most recent acitvities and results in the field from Japan. Then, with assistance provided, attendees will have a chance to actually play as many of the games mentioned which will be assembled in the room and made available for play through the end of lunch.
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. This session will cover not only a look at the designs of many exergames but also how they did as products for sale and business efforts. By getting a more complete picture of exergaming beyond its most recent major releases the goal is to help those interested in developing, researching, and rolling out exergames understand a wider range of opportunities, perspective, and best practices for the genre.
A Game with Bugs : Designing a Game About Malaria Prevention Practices
Malaria is a disease that ravages not only those citizens who inhabit the countries it afflicts but also the many people who travel to such locals. Life and Death in the Age of Malaria is a simulation game currently in development at the University of Wisconsin's School of Nursing and is designed to especially help those traveling and working in areas of high risk for malaria.
Members of the Age of Malaria team will demonstrate the latest version of their game, discuss the design decisions they've made, and solicit feedback for future versions of the game from all in attendance.
Dancetown : Gray Gamers meet Rhythm Games
Often dance and rhythm games are seen as exergames for younger generations. What would it take to reorient such games for so-called "gray gamers" -- those gamers 50 years and older?
In this session Touchtown, a company specializing in operating video and computer information networks in senior communities will discuss how they built and rolled out a specific dance game product for the senior citizen market. DanceTown is a PC based dance game specifically aimed at older players. Unique to the design is a slick web-based system for recording a player's performance and tracking progress over time. A Dancetown player (or their family or medical professional) can see at a glance how their dancing is progressing day by day, week by week and month by month. Players can also see how their scores improve on standardized fitness measurements such as the Senior Fitness Test.
Hospitals Get a K.I.C.K.
The K.I.C.K. (Kid's Interactive Creation Kiosk) is a touch screen system and software activity package developed with young children in mind. Initial design of the system was focused on hospital waiting rooms and other similar healthcare settings. Developed by a team of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center the project was originally titled Project ER and aimed to lower stress for 60,000 children who visited Pittsburgh Medicial Centers ER each year. During the test run the project gathered a lot of research on how to deploy such systems in healthcare settings and will share this knowledge during a case presentation of the K.I.C.K. system.
In order to see games for health play a greater role in settings where healthcare is delivered to the public significant hardware and software delivery problems need to be solved. The K.I.C.K. case provides a roadmap to those engineering and user interface problems that are applicable to many projects. Now as K.I.C.K.'s creators attempt to commercialize their original academic work developers and health providers have a chance to evaluate a unique platform that may be suitable to specific programs they're attempting to launch in the coming years.
3DiTeams: Team Training for Healthcare
The session details the development, research evaluation, and rollout for 3DiTeams Healthcare Team Coordination Scenario Environment. This training environment developed in conjunction/coordination with Duke Medical, Durham, NC and Virtual Heroes Inc, also in Durham. The initial simulation project, targeting healthcare team coordination skill, is called 3DiTeams and combines gaming concepts with healthcare team coordination training curriculum developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
AHRQ is currently funding an evaluation of this application at Duke Medical Center. Its purpose is to provide a controlled and instructive environment for medical professionals to communicate using Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) techniques and teamSTEPPS protocols, resulting ultimately in better teamwork and cohesion in patient care. The curriculum includes adapted materials from TeamSTEPPS (http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/teamstepps/), which is the name for the healthcare team coordination training curriculum.
The case study will focus on how the partnership between a commercial developer and Duke Medical worked, the challenges in building the system including the integrated virtual patient model, and the ongoing evaluation and rollout of the project for healthcare workers.