Healthcare Gaming Platform to chart and improve health indices
Dr Tan Jit Seng
Health and Wellbeing Gamification Technologies
The New Year is traditionally a time for resolutions to lose weight and make changes in lifestyle. Every day there are newspaper articles about the growing pressures on public health services from issues such as obesity, diabetes, COPD, dementia and cardiovascular problems. Today, one of my main interests is how a combination of gamification strategies and consumer technologies can address these challenges by empowering citizens to better manage their health and patients with chronic conditions to take more control over their lives and the quality of living.
I have written a number of articles and posted several presentations on the subject at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/ and now want to provide some updates on projects and organisations I am involved with.
I have recently started exploring collaboration with 2 UK companies involved in this sector. Activ8rLives is the brand name of a company called Aseptika who are based in Huntingdon. They have a range of products which measure health parameters and are involved in various NHS initiatives, mainly around the self-management of patients with chronic lung conditions such as COPD. For details of their products and projects, visit their web site http://www.activ8rlives.com/ .
The other UK company who are involved in personal health management services are Leicester-based Spirit Healthcare http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/ . Their primary focus is supporting patients with Diabetes through measurement tools and a support program.
Key to the use of gamification for personal health management, in my opinion, is the ability to measure conditions, visualise the results, provide feedback and track improvements. Without these elements, it is very difficult to influence behaviours or motivation. Fortunately, the consumerisation of wearable and other devices which track lifestyle related scenarios, creates an unprecedented opportunity to empower citizens and patients to better manage their health but, in my opinion, these will only have a major impact on public health if there is an ecosystem of multi-disciplinary partners committed to a common vision of personal health management.
Through my relationship with Milan-based serious games specialists, Imaginary, I have been involved in various ways with three different projects exploring this space with 3 different target groups.
PEGASO (http://www.pegasof4f.eu/) targets teenagers with gamified technologies that encourage healthy eating and exercise. Childhood obesity is recognised as a very serious problem with long term implications for health and wellbeing in later life. PEGASO uses a combination of wearable technologies and mobile applications to influence behaviours in this target group.
Rehability is a serious game developed by Imaginary for the EU project Rehabathome (http://www.rehabathome-project.eu/) . This uses the Kinect technology in a home-based environment to help stroke patients and those suffering from conditions which require tailored physical exercises to manage those conditions. Rehability is a good example of gamification and applied technologies to facilitate a win-win partnership between medical practitioners and patients because it not only provides feedback and motivation for the patient in the home (rather than an expensive specialist clinic), it also provides tools for the practitioner to monitor the patient condition and make adjustments and interventions remotely.
DOREMI (http://www.doremi-fp7.eu/) is another European project where I have been involved from the beginning, initially whilst working for De Montfort University on the project bid and latterly with Imaginary on dissemination and exploitation activities. DOREMI aims to tackle ageing society issues through gamification and technology by providing tools which encourage healthy active ageing, both physical and cognitive. DOREMI uses games developed for a tablet computer to exercise both the brain and the body.
For details of all these projects, please contact Dalia Morosini at Imaginary dalia.m...@i-maginary.it
The growth of wearable and consumer health management technologies which collect, store and analyse personal health data on a major scale, raises issues of ownership and confidentiality. My view is that the citizen has a right to private and secure access to their own personal health data. This is a view shared by another organisation I have recently come across. The Midata initiative https://www.midata.coop/ reflects some of my own views on the way ahead.