Games for Health Project Announces Ludica Medica Conference
Games for Health Project Announces Ludica Medica: Improving Medical Modeling, Simulation, Training, and Education with Videogames
Standalone Event Joins 7th Annual Games for Health Conference to Expand Discussion of Key Contributions Games Are Making to Medical and Health-Related Training and Education
In 2011, the Games for Health Conference is improving its coverage of using games for medical modeling, simulation, training, and education by moving all of its relevant content into a new pre-conference event titled Ludica Medica. The conference’s playful title serves to emphasize its focus on a number of specific overlaps and specialized contributions that videogames, their associated technologies, and the videogame industry can make in the larger fields of medical modeling and simulation, as well as professional education and training in the medical, health, and biology-based fields.
The event will consist of talks, panels, and case studies, as well as a demo session and small sidebar roundtable discussions. A small team of pioneering researchers, developers, and technology providers have been brought together to advise on the content and direction of the event.
“By converting our medical modeling, simulation, and learning track to a standalone event we’re making the commitment to expand our offerings in this fast-moving space dedicated to education, training, and research. Ludica Medica is complementary to the conferenceís larger medical virtual reality and simulation events. Our focus is 100% on efforts that tie back to the field of videogames and the potential comparative advantages those ties can bring including lower costs, ease of use, new forms of learning, and the ability to reach new and larger audiences, to name a few,” said Ben Sawyer of the Games for Health Project.
Ludica Medica will feature a combination of game-specific talks and talks relevant to audience members, combining and overlapping games and more traditional technologies in the medical learning and training fields. Topics include:
- Advancement of game engines to improve their ability to depict health-related systems, biology, and virtual patients
- Conversion of off-the-shelf game technologies including software, hardware, and controllers for use in medical modeling and simulation
- Development of next-generation artificial intelligence systems to improve key component technologies such as realistic patient interviews
- Innovative game design practices that create new forms of learning and education
- Case studies of games used in training and education programs
- Specialized medical and biological models and visualizations that can be plugged into new games for training and education
- Studies helping identify coefficients and efficacies between game-based motor and cognitive skills and medical performance
Users of such applications are intended to include medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, medics/EMTs, lab technicians, pharmicists, and other related fields. The conference also will feature discussions about student education (from early education health programs to high-school biology and professional degree programs) and patient education programs designed to improve their skills and knowledge.
Ludica Medica is one of several pre-conference events that will take place simultaneously as part of Games for Health and Games Beyond Entertainment Week. Taking place alongside it will be Out & About: The Mobile Serious Games Conference, Enabled Play: A Conference on Games Accessibility, and GameReach: Advertising and Marketing with Games. Ludica Medica will precede the core Games for Health Conference, which continues its primary focus of improving personal and professional health practices with videogames and videogame technologies.
