Pioneering Ideas

Pioneer’s Commitment to Health Games Profiled in New Games for Health Journal

BY PAUL TARINI, SENIOR PROGRAM OFFICER, PIONEER PORTFOLIO -- @PaulTarini

I recently had the good fortune of sitting down with Bill Ferguson to discuss the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s pivotal role in health games research for the inaugural issue of the Games for Health Journal. In our talk, I detailed the Foundation’s early investment in the field, the challenges to advancing health games and some grantee findings to date.

Thinking about our conversation, I’m struck by how far the field has come since the early days of our health games support in 2004. Back then, there wasn’t much intersection between the games space and the health space, but Pioneer saw potential. So we worked with Ben Sawyer (@BenSawyer) of Digitalmill to do some community building within the gaming industry around health interests and funded the first-ever Games for Health Conference.   

Now, with seven conferences behind us and the eighth scheduled for June 12-14, 2012, in Boston, Pioneer can proudly claim we helped create and sustain a way for the games and health communities to come together. But we didn’t stop there.

Pioneer expanded its support to the Health Games Research national program, directed by Debra Lieberman at UC Santa Barbara (who is featured in a roundtable discussion of health games experts in the Journal), where we are seeing our 21 grantees test some fascinating ways health games can be optimally designed. They're exploring game features such as competition, collaboration, social comparison, social support, nurturing of characters, immersion in fictional worlds and alternate realities, interacting with a human-like robots to motivate exercise, using a mobile phone game as a substitute for a cigarette, and much more. And there’s more to come.

Health Games Research's work to identify a broad range of features that make for effective health games will help to further expand the creative horizons of future developers. Well-designed and well-implemented games can motivate and support prevention, lifestyle behavior change, and self-management of chronic conditions, and Pioneer is proud to be part of this work. We are excited to see a journal devoted to the research, development, and clinical application of games and health.

Check out the inaugural issue and read about the work of Pioneer’s grantees and others in this important field on the Pioneer Health Games homepage. Tell @pioneerrwjf or @gamesresearch what you think.

Defining and Understanding Violent Video Games

Guest blogger Maria Chesley Fisk, Ph.D., is Deputy Director of Health Games Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, which funds research to advance the innovation and effectiveness of digital games and game technologies intended to improve health.

On November the 2^rd, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Software Association.  The court will hear arguments for and against the state of California’s yet-to-be-enacted law banning the sale of violent video games to youth under the age of 18. Under the law, violent video games would be labeled 18 and those who sell them to minors could be fined up to $1000. Games used as examples include Resident Evil 4 and Tom Clancy Rainbow Six 3. The California law defines “violent video game” in 150 words as, in part, as “a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.”

On October 22, at the Meaningful Play conference at Michigan State University, I facilitated a lively and thoughtful discussion about this case and its implications. A couple of themes emerged, and I will surely flavor them with my own opinion as I describe them here.  One theme was that whether there is an enacted law or not, parents should monitor their children’s gameplay (play with them even!) and teach their children positive strategies for handling conflict and frustration.  In short, parents should proactively take responsibility. 

A second theme of the discussion was that video games are powerful teachers. They teach whether they are designed for education, change, or entertainment and whether the teaching is intentional or unintentional. In other words, video games have effects on players. We as a society would benefit from honest, informative conversations about the nature and extent of those effects, as well as from more research that informs those conversations. 

A third theme was that parents should take into account the ratings assigned to games by the ESRB rating system in addition to their own evaluations of the appropriateness.  At least some participants wished we could use the resources consumed by the court cases that led to the Supreme Court case differently— informing parents about the rating system and the potential positive and negative consequences of playing games.  Game reviews from organizations like Common Sense Media are other tools that can help. 

I support a simple definition of violent video games:  Violent video games are those that represent violence as the best or only way to resolve conflict.  And I wholeheartedly agree with the discussants that parents are in the best position to monitor and help children process the messages they get from video games and other media.  Processing messages from media involves noticing them, evaluating them, and considering alternatives. In the case of violent games, an alternative is a peaceful approach to resolving differences. I hope the upcoming Supreme Court case will raise our country’s awareness and fuel productive, healthy conversations about the implications, responsibilities, and opportunities associated with children’s use of media.

Posting from TED: Health, Design and Game-Changers

Sorry for the lapse in TED posting…never have I seen an event program as packed as this.  It’s made getting back to the hotel a challenge, and throw in some tenuous wireless connections…well, you get the point.  But here’s a recap of RWJF’s luncheon at TED, held Thursday. 

We had a packed room of 60 TEDsters--including the creators of Del.icio.us and hotornot.com, heads of design schools, the president of user experience design firm Adaptive Path (developer of the Charmr, from an earlier Emily Culbertson post), execs from venture capital and game development firms, David Pogue (technology columnist for the New York Times and one of my favorite writers) and the founder of DNA Direct (a genetic testing and management company)—with about 30 who lined up to attend, but unfortunately we couldn’t accommodate due to space limitations.

Pam Omidyar, founder of HopeLab gave a great recap of the inspiration behind and clinical outcomes linked to Re-Mission, the video game developed for kids battling cancer.  There were cheers when she showed the results, which demonstrated that kids who played the game had higher levels of treatment adherence and more knowledge about their disease ,and were more empowered to fight back.  She showed amazing MRI imagery that showed players’ brains on Re-Mission.  Areas tied to emotional processing lit up, which was key to internalizing the lessons underlying the challenge and excitement of the first-person shooter game.  We were honored to have Taylor Carol and his dad, Jim, with us – Taylor is now in full remission from leukemia, played the game during his six months in the hospital, and is the star of our promise story on Re-Mission. 

John Maeda, president of RISD, outlined distinctions in mission and change vision between designers and artists, and called on more designers to apply their skills, thinking, creativity and ingenuity to save the world.  Having given some of the more popular TED Talks in years past, he provoked the group to think differently about the potential of this space.

The group then turned to the game jam, led by Ben Sawyer and game designers Noah Falstein and Larry Holland.  The crowd first decided to tackle the issues of chronic disease, and then refined the challenge further to focus on actions and behaviors.  Some of the ideas they proposed that seemed promising to the game developers included:

• Addressing metabolic syndrome, using a game approach to help navigate the different associated conditions and co-morbidities, trade-offs among treatments, and patients’ abilities to manage aspects of their condition.
• Developing a realistic, action-based approach to the immunization debate that can inform decisions around vaccine safety.
• A game focused on how to manage depression…when asked why that intrigued them, the developers replied, “Because it seems hard.”  
• Helping patients better navigate health care systems and services.

Noah and Larry continued to work through these possibilities in to the evening on Thursday and all day Friday.  The results of their concept development will be unveiled at our TED Lab exhibit space this morning.

We’re grateful to Pam, John, Ben, Larry and Noah for joining us and shining a spotlight on the potential for games to spark big change in health and health care.  I think people came away with a sense for that potential to touch people’s lives and help them pursue health goals and make informed decisions in uniquely powerful ways. 

Ben and his team are going to see where these ideas may go from here, so let us hear your input on how this exploration can lead to the next breakthrough health game.

Debra Lieberman on Health Games Research’s new Call for Proposals

Today, Health Games Research released their second Call for Proposals: Health Games Research: Advancing Effectiveness of Interactive Games for Health. We will wrap up our week-long conversation with Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., director of Health Games Research, with a discussion about this new funding opportunity.

Debra, can you tell us about the types of grants that will be available through this Call for Proposals?

The focus of the Call for Proposals (CFP), both during the first round of funding and now, is on research that will discover principles of health game design. This year the funding limit is higher: $300,000.  The money must be used primarily for research and only a small percentage of the grant – no more than 25 percent of the funding – is permitted to be used for developing game software or technology that will be used in the study   Also, like last year, the research must focus on a physical activity game that motivates people to get up and move, and/or on a self-care game that motivates people to engage in prevention, lifestyle improvement, self-management of chronic conditions or adherence to their treatment plan.  As we saw last year, these guidelines keep the program focused, yet they are not so restrictive that we don’t see a wide range of research issues addressed, game platforms used, game genres, research questions or study populations in the funded projects.

Are there specific things that you’re looking in this round of grantees?

We are looking for projects that focus on physical activity games and self-care games. The games may appear on any platform, with any genre, but they must be well designed and have theory or evidence demonstrating the game’s effectiveness.   

How can people learn more about this funding opportunity?

The complete Health Games Research Call for Proposals is available at http://www.healthgamesresearch.org  Additionally, there will be two optional web conference calls for potential applicants on February 11, 2009 (3 p.m. ET) and February 19, 2009 (4 p.m. ET).  Proposals are due by 3 p.m. ET on April 8, 2009. The conference calls are great opportunities for potential applicants to learn more about the program and to ask questions about the CFP requirements.

 Are there any tips you want to share with potential applicants?

The best tip I can give is to encourage applicants to read the Call for Proposals carefully and make sure that all the criteria and requirements have been met. Make sure your research team has the skills required to carry out the proposed project and that you are realistic about the budget and time line. Be sure to provide a good theory-based justification for your research plan, too. What are your hypotheses? Are they based on any theoretical knowledge and findings that already exist, and how are you taking your study to the next level? And be sure to include a dissemination plan for your work and explain how your findings will help us improve health games in the future

Thanks so much to Debra for taking the time to talk with us.  Health Games Research is taking on some really exciting work and we look forward to following the progress of the project's grantees. 

Interesting things, here and there...

Thanks to Jerry Michalski of Sociate for telling us about a massively multiplayer online game hosted by Institute for the Future called Superstruct.  The folks who do IFTF's 10-year forecasts put together a game in which anyone and everyone can figure out what life might be like in 2019, and help invent the future of society as it relates to 5 different scenarios.  One is directly about health -- the QUARANTINE category states that outbreaks have become a common element of our existence.  It focuses on a respiratory infectious disease called ReDS and challenges players to consider all the implications and figure out how to respond.

The other game scenarios have important implications for health as well, as they immerse you in envisioning a world in which we're:

• RAVENOUS - the food chain is broken and we have to reinvent ways to feed ourselves
• in a POWER STRUGGLE - the world is caught up in "Alternative Fuel" wars over what will take the place of oil
• facing GENERATION EXILE - our neighbors have become climate and economic disaster refugees in search of new places to live, or
• an OUTLAW PLANET -- In 2019, the mobile internet and sensor networks we rely on to hold our societies together are being hacked, griefed, and gamed.

The site today reports that there are 4,905 players with a collective score of 4,911.  What this means is that the current survival horizon, based on all of these superthreats and how we deal with them, is through 2047.  The game started on Oct. 6 and runs for 6 weeks -- check it out and sign up to play.

Another item worth reading is eFuturist Douglas Goldstein's take on the future of video games and health, posted today on The Health Care Blog.  He has this to say:

"It may be surprising to some that the health care industry has been among the first to recognize the ‘game-changing’ potential of games in business and other environments.  Leaders in the health care sector are now embracing video games as an integral part of a digitally enabled health culture."

He also points to an October 2008 market report from iConecto that identifies health games as a growing field.  Right now, they estimate that the health games market stands "at approximately $7 billion during the next 12 months including the markets for brain fitness ($267M), exergaming ($6.4B+) and other Health eGames on the consumer and professional side ($250M+).  An expanded executive summary of the report can be obtained here.

Modern Healthcare Reports on Pioneer's Work on Games

Recently, Modern Healthcare highlighted Health Games Research, Games for Health and Pioneer's overall interest in exploring games as a health care innovation. The magazine described the work of our grantees and reported on recent research into the interaction of games and health. We thought you'd like to see what they had to say:

The Games Patients Play

Whether it's for treatment, prevention or even provider education, health care is becoming more and more interactive. An article by Modern Healthcare.

By Jessica Zigmond

Improving 21st century healthcare is, unquestionably, an expensive, complex and vital endeavor for the U.S. But can it also be fun?

Researchers, hospitals and insurers think so, which is why they’re investing time and money to develop interactive games that could change behavior—and perhaps help cut costs—in healthcare.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a not-for-profit philanthropy that focuses on the country’s most pressing healthcare needs, is leading these efforts through Health Games Research, an $8.25 million project funded through the foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio. Established about five years ago, the Pioneer Portfolio considers innovative ideas that could “break the current paradigms of healthcare,” says Chinwe Onyekere, a program officer at the foundation who works with the Pioneer team. In May, the foundation awarded more than $2 million to help bolster the evidence base that supports the development and use of interactive games for health purposes. A dozen institutions were granted up to $200,000 each to lead one- to-two-year studies of games that engage players who range in age from 8 to 98.

“We’re gaining insight into how people learn,” says Debra Lieberman, director of Health Games Research and a lecturer in the department of communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which is the program’s headquarters. “What I love is that people do this willingly. These games are so well-received,” she says, adding that it’s fun to watch how hard people try when playing a game.

Lieberman says she conducted a study of children ages 6 to 11 and asked if they preferred learning from a book, a video or a video game. She found that 49 of the 50 kids said they preferred a video game because it “lets you try things out.” She’s now trying to pull the over-30 generation into this world. “People say this will sugar-coat learning,” she says. “Learning is fun. Everyone loves to learn, but they need a reason to learn.”

The article continues after the jump.

Like Games? Then You'll Love the Game Jam

"But what exactly is a Game Jam?" you might be asking.

A "Game Jam" is a marathon session that challenges teams of game designers, programmers and artists to work round-the-clock for a limited period of time to create small, playable games that demonstrate innovative ideas. At the end of the "jam session," competitors showcase their work, which is critiqued and judged by a panel of professional game developers and educators.

Sound like fun?  We think so, and we are excited to announce that Games for Health is hosting their first Experimental Health Game Jam October 18-19, 2008 at the University of Baltimore. The event is open to individuals and teams of all shapes and sizes, including student groups, independent game developers and programmers with the goal of developing prototypes for games that people can play to learn about and improve their health.

Participants will gather on Friday, October 17 at which time Games for Health will unveil a simple challenge and set of goals for the teams to focus on as they develop their games. Teams will have the weekend to incubate an idea, draw up basic supporting design and art, and then program it into a playable game prototype. Winners will be judged not only on the originality, quality and playability of their resulting work, but also by how well the game potentially addresses the health problem presented at the outset of the weekend.

The winner will receive a $3,000 reward. An additional prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the best student-built game.

If you are interested in health games, you will not want to miss this. Click here for more information or to register for this first ever Health Game Jam.

New Evidence Supports Re-Mission and Advances Games for Health

We have talked quite a bit about games for health and building the evidence to understand the health impact of video and computer games here on Pioneering Ideas. Given that, I wanted to share with you a new study published this week in the journal Pediatrics.

The study evaluated the impact of playing Re-Mission, a video game developed by HopeLab specifically for teens and young adults with cancer, on key behavioral and psychological factors associated with successful cancer treatment. For those of your not familiar with Re-Mission, the game allows players, primarily young cancer patients, to pilot a microscopic robot named Roxxi through the bodies of fictional cancer patients, blasting away cancer cells and battling the side-effects of cancer and cancer treatments.

The study, the largest health game study to date, found that participants who played Re-Mission maintained higher levels of chemotherapy in their blood and took their antibiotics more consistently than those in the control group. Re-Mission players also showed faster acquisition of cancer-related knowledge and an increased sense of control over cancer.

In a press release issued by HopeLab, Steve Cole, Ph.D., vice president of research and co-author of the article, said, “This study shows that a strategically designed video game can be a powerful new tool to enhance the impact of medical treatment by motivating healthy behavior in the patient.”

We couldn’t agree more and expect that the work of Pioneer’s national program, Health Games Research will help continue to build this body of research and inform and advance game development to improve health outcomes.

Game Drives Open-Source Biochemical Discoveries

On Day 1 of the Games for Health conference, Zoran Popovic of the University of Washington gave a demo of his Fold It! game project.  This unique effort, produced in partnership with Electronic Arts and others, is a massive multiplayer game that challenges thousands of players to work in competition and collaboratively to answer unknowns about the stucture and design of proteins.  I don't know a whole lot about proteins, beyond the fact that they play a big part in many diseases and also can contribute to cures, which is intriguing scientists like Zoran.  Ultimately, the answers uncovered through the game play contribute to the search for vaccines and cures related to HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimers, etc.

    Here's a screen shot of Fold It!

Rockin' Out!

At the opening plenary session of today's Games for Health conference, Ben Sawyer introduced modded (modified) guitars that allow Guitar Hero to be played with one arm. The modded guitars followed a discussion with a rehabilitation therapist in North Carolina and a game developer in Wisconsin. The therapist asked for a version of Guitar Hero for her patients who had lost an arm or had limited use of an arm. Guitar Hero provided guitars to Ben Heckendorn who created a modified pedal that allows the player to strum the guitar with her foot. This is a big contribution towards accessible video games, but it also illustrates the power of collaboration. Games for Health brings together people who work (and face challenges) in health and health care to designers and developers from the video game industry with new solutions.

Below are some pics of Ben Sawyer (with tie around his head) and Ben Heckendorn rocking out with the modded Guitar Hero.

Come game with us!

The Games for Health Conference is just around the corner, and with all of our recent posts about games, I wanted to remind folks about this exciting event.

The conference sessions are too numerous to name here, but if you have any interests in the future of exergames, exergyms, rehabitainment, and improving health outcomes for gray gamers – this event is for you. The conference will highlight games that are being used to train health care professionals, reduce stress and improve health behaviors, as well as the research that is being done to understand how and why games can improve health and health care. The conference will also feature a panel of representatives from the nation’s largest health insurance companies, including conference sponsor, Humana, to discuss their current and future health game initiatives. If we’ve piqued your interest – you can check out the complete list of conference sessions here.

The Details

Games for Health Conference 2008

May 8-9, 2008

Baltimore Convention Center

Baltimore, Maryland

Click here to register

RWJF's Wii Workout

Following on Theresa's post...

Though we might not be as edgy as the Game Developers Conference (yet), RWJF is making strides (and swings, punches, serves, strikes and spares).  We thought you might like to check out a few photos from the recent "getting to know Wii" sessions that the Foundation held for staff.  Thanks to all who graciously gave us the OK to share these (and who pull it off with such style in their business-gamer attire).

	Linda and Lois duke it out in the boxing ring.
	Jasmine and James have the crowd on their feet.
	And Wilson shows off his left hook as Jasmine plans her next move.

There's even talk that they may break out the Wii for our trustees to play during their upcoming board meeting.  In a few weeks I'll check in with Kristine Nasto, who oversees our facilities including the fitness center, to see whether and how the games are influencing people's workout preferences.

Wii are excited...

Every Tuesday morning, RWJF program staff gather for a meeting to review proposed grants, policies and other foundation matters.  There's usually a few minutes at the start when announcements, staff birthdays, etc. flash on the screen at the front of the room.  Today we found out that RWJF's fitness center is adding the Nintendo Wii to the array of fitness services that are available to staff and guests. 

I was surprised at first that they made the move, but think it's great that the facility is so forward-thinking in its approach to fitness.  It may be the trick to get me in there one more day a week, which I've been pledging to do for ages now, but with no real conviction. 

I'll try to follow up with our fitness center staff to see whether and how staff incorporate the Wii in to their workouts, and report back to the blog.  In the meantime, have you heard of other workplaces that are trying this out?

We'll be there, will you?

Games for Health has announced that the fourth annual Games for Health Conference will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center on May 8-9, 2008 (with Humana as a main industry sponsor).

The conference will engage participants in a wide range of game-related topics: everything from health behavior change, disease management and cognitive health to accessibility for games, disability-focused games, and exergaming and rehabitainment.

Program Officer Chinwe Onyekere shared highlights from the third annual games for health conference here on the blog and we will be sure to post more after this year’s conference as well (though it would be much cooler if you were there in person).

As Chinwe notes in her post, the Games for Health Conferences have been growing exponentially.  We expect this year’s conference to be no exception so make sure you register early.

Active Games - A Less Intentional, More Effective Workout?

Last week, New York Times reporter Tara Parker-Pope explored the consumer appeal and health benefits of active games.  The Wii and Fisher Price's Smart Cycle are some of the hottest sells this holiday season.  Learn why, after the jump, in the full article, for your reading pleasure.

Why Games Matter: Competition Results

The results of the Why Games Matter competition were announced recently and can be found here. I was lucky enough to be a judge for this competition—here’s what I took away from looking over the field of entries:

• The entries, finalists, and winners show without a doubt the richness of the “games for health” field.
• We had entries (and winners) from all over the world—which demonstrates how interactive video games can be adapted to fit a variety of cultures, geographic locations, and interests.
• We also had entries from different industries and sectors of the economy, and these looked at many different components of health and health care—from HIV/AIDS, to violence prevention, to physical disabilities, to community health, to the transformation of the health care system. We saw that there’s a place for games across all of these.
• Many of the entries included a research component. What a great beginning for the work of Health Games Research, as Abbey Cofskey described for you here.

Save the date for the Change Summit, which will take place at the annual Games for Health Conference on May 8-9, 2008. We’ll be taking another look at the competitors and how they’re doing, and I, for one, can’t wait!

Announcing Health Games Research

Today marks the Foundation’s official launch of Health Games Research, a new national program to support research to enhance the quality and effectiveness of interactive games that are used to improve health. Debra Lieberman, communications researcher at UC-Santa Barbara, will direct this new initiative.

Pioneer has been exploring the potential for games to improve health and health care and has been working with Games for Health to forge connections between the games and health fields. We’re now looking to build a body of evidence that helps demonstrate how a game – used alone or in combination with other innovations – can improve people’s health. We hope it shines the light on specific design elements and strategies that are demonstrated to benefit health among those playing the games, and that can be applied to an ever-growing array of health-related games in the future.

The first Health Games Research call for proposals will award up to $2 million to support studies that investigate principles of effective health game design. The proposal deadline is January 29, 2008.

This new program will foster some very exciting (and fun) research.  The total grant size is $8.25 million; beyond fostering new research, these funds also will sustain and expand the work of Ben Sawyer’s Games for Health Project to bring folks from the games and health worlds together to learn, share best practices and bring the field to new levels.

Thanks to those, namely Ian at Kotaku, Leigh at Gamasutra and Dean at The San Jose Mercury News, who have already engaged in what will certainly continue to be a very interesting conversation.

Finally. . . the Finalists!

There's one week left in the voting for the Why Games Matter competition.  To review the 14 finalists and vote for your favorites, please visit http://www.changemakers.net/node/725/.

When you get to the competition site, you're going to find an eclectic collection of finalists, and I think some may surprise you--these entries are not just for kids playing stationary consoles.  At the outset of the competition, Debra Lieberman, health games researcher and Games for Health advisor, defined a game as " 'a rule-based activity involving challenge to reach a goal.'  As soon as a goal is involved and the activity is bounded by rules, it becomes a game."  The finalists for Why Games Matter do a lot to bring context to this definition, and challenge some traditional expectations of video games.   

The most obvious challenge is that the target audiences for many of these games aren't young, and in some cases aren't even patients!  Among of the finalists are exergames, or games in which exerting physical activity is a rule to reach the goal.  And, while people often think good games come from big budget technology companies, that definitely does not apply to most of these finalists. There are plenty of unexpected entries in this competition.

Please remember, the final day for voting is November 7!

PAX 2007

The last time I was a gamer was about 1991 when I dominated Super Mario 3.  I stopped when I noticed that while I was reading books I kept seeing a digital Italian plumber trying to earn gold coins by knocking up against the letters on the page. I recognized my addiction and went cold turkey. Sure there have been the occasional Ms. Pac Man game at a bowling alley, but I've been off of video games for over half my life.  Attending late August's Penny Arcade Expo, which followed our Games for Health Day, has lured me back to gaming.

Friends and colleagues said Penny Arcade Expo (PAX for gamers in the know) would be big. The news stories were predicting 30,000 gamers. But I was still unprepared for how extensive, organized, informative, and fun the expo was. Most of the attendees were there to play games, casually in designated game rooms or in game lounges and competitively in tournament games with top players from across the country. I would group myself with the attendees who were there to learn more about the gaming industry.

Alongside the game play were a series of panel presentations on topics such as the future of handheld games, game testing, the relationship between developers and publishers, women in the game industry, and the emerging academic discipline of gaming. There was also the widely popular keynote presentation by Wil Wheaton, which can be seen in selected snippets on YouTube.  Wil spoke to the benefits of gaming in his life, from his childhood to his current life as a parent.  He also spoke about how social gaming is, as evidenced by the 30,000 gamers who attended the Expo. The crowd agreed.

Games for Health Day - Eyewitness Report

The Games for Health west coast meet-up was held Thursday August 23 as a lead-in to the annual Penny Arcade Expo. The meet-up drew a local audience of gamers, health professionals, and others interested in the games that promote health messages or change health behaviors. While the presentations were familiar to me from past games for health events, I was struck by the new people I met in this field. 

Observing this burgeoning space of games for health is so fascinating.  I met game instructors, hospital administrators, and wanna-be game developers who have been interested in this area for years, but didn't know that a community of researchers and practitioners existed. I think for several of them, hearing presentations on early evidence of health benefits from games was a religious experience. After years wandering in academic or health practice darkness, they were finally being welcomed into the light with open arms of fellow health gamers.

Okay, maybe the analogy is too much, but there was definitely lots of synergy in the room as people learned they had peers in the games for health space.  The next challenge, I mean opportunity, will be how the field coalesces. Can these gamers play nicely together?

I also got to spend time at the Penny Arcade Expo itself, and will discuss it - and whether it answers this question - in my next post.

Second Life Conference Explores Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds

Chinwe Onyekere is speaking on a funders panel this weekend at the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago (SLCC).  Joining her to talk about philanthropy's foray in to virtual worlds are Barry Joseph, Online Leadership Director, Global Kids, which is doing amazing stuff in Teen Second Life ; Ben Stokes, program officer in the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Learning and Media area; Allyson Knox, who helps to manage Microsoft's US Partners in Learning grants; and Brad Lewis of Learn and Serve America.  Lucy Bernholz of Philanthropy 2173 will moderate the panel, as she writes, "live, and not in person."

Second Life residents can check out the conference stream in SL and a host of other in-world events.

Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative blog has tons of information and links about SLCC.  And the MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight blog on digital media and learning features Lucy again, here hosting a group discussion on "Virtual Success--Will You Know It When you See It?"

Bernholz throws the following questions out to funders in this space:

1. What are reasonable expectations for philanthropic activities within virtual worlds?
2. How are you defining both success and failure for your initiative?

An interesting string of responses have been posted that highlight how funders and nonprofits might smartly take advantage of this "frontier medium" to advance social change...and also how they may blow it if work in the virtual sphere isn't planned thoroughly and executed thoughtfully.

Blog and Press Accounts of Games for Health Day

There's a great recap of several Games for Health Day-Seattle presentations on Mark Danger Chen's blog...it's always good to get the perspectives of a self-confessed gamer in academia.  Thanks, Mark...from one who was writing about this event from her desk in Jersey, this was nearly as good as being there!  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also ran a story on the event in today's paper.  Games for Health director Ben Sawyer had this to say:

"There's this caveman logic that it's all about kids and games, but there are so many other people we can reach....We can get the (health care and gaming) worlds to crash together and apply the different ideas in new and innovative ways."

And If You're in Seattle...

Games for Health Day will be held August 23 -- the eve of the 2007 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. The event runs from 9 am to 7 pm, and includes a networking reception. The site is the Hotel Deca, 4507 Brooklyn Avenue, NE, Seattle.  Click here for the full schedule. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear what leaders in the casual gaming world have to say about the intersection of games and health. I'm not going to this one but Chinwe Onyekere and Theresa Kanter will be there and should have some interesting things to report back. 

Wii in Action

I just came back from a demonstration of Wii. Very interesting and quite fun. I think they have a convert!  I was able to play the bowling, boxing and tennis game. All of them were pretty fun and they sure get you moving. I almost broke a sweat on the boxing game. They all are really good for increasing range of motion.

One of the things that I found interesting was that Nintendo did not do any market research around the physical activity aspect of the Wii. Their goal was just to make gaming much more interactive and to get people up and moving. The connection to physical activity was really not on their radar.

But now with all of the attention they are getting they are starting to think about the added benefit of games that support physical activity. And that is a good thing!

Will Wii show the way?

Since RWJF began its work with Games for Health we have been thinking about how to get the video game industry involved and interested. I think the answer presented itself with an article that was in the New York Times on the Nintendo Wii. The article says that Wii’s popularity over its competitors, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is linked with getting players active as they play the game. Now this is something that makes me very excited. It demonstrates consumers wanting to “play” video games in a different way—a way that can give them a workout while they are trying to advance to the next level. And the people at Nintendo, in their market research, must have figured out that this was a latent, as-yet-unmet need of video game users.

Today, NPR had a segment on how the Wii may be only the first step in a whole new notion of the user’s interface with technology.

The example of the Wii makes me wonder about the ability of the business sector to understand and tap the minds of consumers.  My next question then is, if the business sector can do this, how can we engage it, or at least its market research skill, in creating the next major innovation in health?

Games as a Diagnostic Device?

In my December post on personal health records, I wrote about health data generated in the home and how it might fit into a PHR.  A story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer highlights another intriguing possibility -- using games to track cognitive ability.  By looking at how well people perform on certain games, you could potentially spot early signs of cognitive decline.  (This idea is also illustrated in a video we supported by the Center for Aging Services Technologies that Al Shar described on this blog a couple of months ago.)  The challenge, of course, is in the analysis, interpretation, and communication of the data.  There's another question, which is whether the game then becomes a diagnostic device, in the legal sense.  Will Halo 4 require FDA approval??

FIT at school - or work?

I first heard about this fabulous games for health program months ago, but I've really been talking it up recently as I've seen lots of friends over the holidays who are teachers. The program is called Generation FIT, and is run by Judy Shasek, a dynamic personality with the energy for multiple rounds of DDR levels! The program puts dance video games and other physical video games into the classroom. This seems simple enough, but GenFIT adds value by supplying extra durable dance pads and a student-led game management program. Huh?  That means that 30% of the students in a classroom are trained to lead peer game-play in a "respectful and responsible" manner.  The kids do this with much success.

Looking for Great Games

The Pioneer Portfolio is holding a nationwide contest to promote the development of computer and video games that improve people's health and help them get the care they need.

The Games for Health Competition will award prizes totaling $30,000 to entrants who develop game concepts or prototypes aimed at improving aspects of health and health care.  (Additional prize support is being provided by HopeLabs, Inc.)  We'll post more information on the competition as it evolves!

Future Brain Games

One of the most impressive examples of where we can go in the future that I saw at the recent Games for Health conference is SmartBrainGames. 

Using neurofeedback technology this game can harness your power of concentration for game play. Just imagine, you can sit there with four sensors placed on your head (this is not at all as sci-fi as it sounds) and with your ability to focus, you can play the game and advance to the next level.

One can only imagine the applications of this type of game in health. In it, your brain becomes an extension of your joystick controller. Could we use this game to assist surgeons in completing laparoscopic surgery faster and with fewer mistakes? Or could this game help people to control new prosthetic devices with mental acuity?  Or what else?

There are many questions like this around how we can apply video games to health and health care.  This field is in its infancy and there is more work to be done - we have only begun to play the game to better health. 

Keep watching this blog as we generate comments and have guest posters here to tell you more.  In the meantime, there's a short video about Games for Health available on YouTube that you can find here.