Gamification's Next Target: The Healthcare Industry
Contrary to popular belief, the practice of gamification has played a critical role in the airline, military and other industries for quite some time. The healthcare industry is its most recent target, where it is focusing on adherence and patient engagement. A recent “white paper” report on the Inner City Fund International, or ICFI, website examined the growing trend of healthcare gamification.
Download the report here.
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Re-Mission 2 a “cancer fighting” game app helps young cancer patients
Taken from MedCityNews.com
Cigna, a global health insurance company, wants young cancer patients to have access to Re-Mission 2: Nanobots Revenge, a “cancer fighting” game. Players are placed into a virtual human body equipped with weapons such as chemotherapy and antibiotics to “fight” cancer.
The game was developed by a non-profit organization called HopeLab with help from a diverse set of professionals involved in cancer related healthcare. It was tested during a three month period where 375 young cancer patients were given access to it. By the end of the period 16% of patients had a higher usage of antibiotics and all of them, on average, maintained 41% higher blood levels of chemotherapy. The patients improved their knowledge of cancer and became more confident in their ability to get healthy.
“:Ten years ago, it would have seemed strange that a health insurance company would want to encourage children to play video games. With today’s healthcare gaming culture, though, it makes total sense.”
“Cigna thinks every young cancer patient should have access to Re-Mission 2: Nanobot’s Revenge, a video game designed to empower kids to fight their disease and stick to their prescribed treatments. So it’s turned it into a mobile app that’s free to download in the App Store or on Google Play.”
“The game puts players inside a virtual human body and equips them with “weapons” like chemotherapy, antibiotics and immune cells to, literally, fight cancer. A non-profit technology organization called HopeLab developed it with input from oncologists, epidemiologists, cell biologists, behavioral psychologists, video game producers and young people with cancer.”
“Since 2007, Cigna has distributed the game for free to doctors and facilities that treat young people with cancer.”
“‘The more we looked at it, the more we found it an impressive way to break through with teenagers to understand their cancer and what it takes to fight and beat it,’ said Joe Mondy, director of public relations for Cigna. ‘We were won over by the fact that they’d actually done research on it.’”
“HopeLab worked with medical centers across the country to conduct a randomized, multi-center trial of the original game’s, Re-Mission, effect in 375 young patients with cancer (PDF). After three months, the patients who were given the game demonstrated improvements in quality of life, knowledge about cancer and belief in their ability to beat the disease. They also maintained 41 percent higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed a 16 percent higher usage rate of antibiotics.”
“Researchers have linked adherence to treatments with better outcomes in certain cancers. Research has been mixed, though, on whether positive attitudes are associated with better cancer outcomes.”
“‘(In 2007), we distributed enough to put it in the hands of every kid who had cancer in the U.S.,’ Mondy said. Now, Cigna wants to expand the game’s reach by offering it as a free app for Android and iOS, rather than the CD-based format Cigna would send out to docs. ‘Our goal is to get this in the hands of every kid with cancer in the world.’”
“HopeLab recently re-designed the game into a series of six separate games that’s “less Americanized,” according to Mondy but just as effective in its mission. It based the re-design on the original study and a follow-on study that used brain-imaging technology to identify how interactive game play, versus passive viewing of information, motivates positive health behavior.”
“‘Research on the original Re-Mission showed that it impacted biology and behavior primarily by energizing positive motivation circuits in the human brain and giving players a sense of power and control over cancer,’ said Steve Cole, HopeLab’s vice president of R&D, in a prepared statement at the time of the second version’s launch. ‘That gave us a whole new recipe for engineering the games in Re-Mission 2 — by harnessing the power of positive motivation circuits in the human brain.’”
UPenn’s Wharton School Blog discusses the growing trend of Healthcare Gamification
The Knowledge Blog at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business posted an article on January 16th, 2013 named “The Rise of Healthcare Gamification”. The article discussed gamification challenges, such as policy violations and engagement. Various companies including GameMetrix Solutions and United Healthcare were also illuminated as competitors in the new industry. The article also touches upon a number of significant issues, including patents and privacy obstacles, that companies in the industry need to overcome.
The article, though not recently published, is an important read in order to grasp the underlying fundamentals of arguably the fasted developing industry in the United States.
“These days, anyone with a smartphone can download a variety of games designed to make them healthier, whether that means helping them stick to an exercise routine, lose weight or manage a chronic illness. The games, invented by health insurers and a host of technology startups, are marketed directly to consumers, who use them to track their progress and record key health metrics such as blood sugar and pounds shed. Players of these games can win rewards, perhaps even cash, if they hit their health goals."
“Experts have dubbed this trend ‘the gamification of health care.’ It means ‘applying elements and design concepts from games to other contexts that are not themselves games,’ says Kevin Werbach, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics. ‘Using motivational techniques from games is part of it, as is creating engaging experiences for people.’ Werbach is co-author of For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business, which argues that companies should think like game designers when they are devising new ways to motivate employees and customers.
In health care, however, gamification presents a distinctive set of challenges. Health care providers that want to offer games to their customers must do so without violating federal patient privacy regulations -- a requirement that can make it difficult to target games to the patients who will benefit most from them. Even companies that are not subject to those regulations are finding themselves under pressure to protect players' most personal data.”
“Then there is the problem of the games themselves: How can companies make them engaging enough to keep customers interested? ‘It's sometimes hard to build a game that's sufficiently serious and on topic, but also fun,’ Werbach says.
Health insurance providers were among the first to dip their toes into gamification. Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group, for example, launched OptumizeMe, an app that allows people to participate in fitness-related contests with their friends, and the company is pilot testing Join For Me, a program that encourages adolescents who are obese and at risk of developing diabetes to play videogames that require dancing or other physical activites. Healthways has a Boston subsidiary called MeYou Health, which has developed a rewards program for people who complete one health-related task per day.”
“Several technology startups have burst onto the scene as well, many of them focused on fitness. Boston-based GymPact uses GPS to track its users to the gym. Members who meet their workout goals win cash, much of it from GymPact members who pay penalties for failing to exercise as promised. Fitbit, based in San Francisco, markets wireless tracking devices that sync to smartphones and computers so that users can track their fitness activities. Then there is New York's Fitocracy, which is more of a Facebook-like social network, where people can track their workouts, challenge friends to exercise contests and earn recognition for meeting goals.”
“Werbach notes that there has also been a plethora of smaller companies inventing games for people with challenging health issues, such as SuperBetter Labs, a San Francisco company that is beta testing an online social game designed to help people coping with illnesses, injuries or depression. The company collaborated with scientists and doctors to develop the game.”
Find the rest of the article here.
Geckocap is a better method to manage your child’s asthma medication. Find out more here
Games VS Gamification: Similarities and Differences
A common misconception that we hear a lot is the idea that “games” and “gamification” are the same entity. However, this is not the case. Although they do overlap in some similarities, the differences are significant.
A recent article published on Mind/Shift, a blog that “explores the future of learning”, explains the critical separations between games, gamification, and stimulation.
“Perhaps the best way to think about games in education is not to automatically call everything that looks like fun a “learning game.” Lumping all digital game approaches together makes no more sense than a toddler’s inclination to call every four-legged animal a ‘doggie.’”
“Game interest is definitely on the upswing in K-12 and higher education. It seems almost cyclical: every several years, almost in sync with the acceptance of new technologies (such as multimedia CD-ROM, then online, then mobile), there’s a surge of activity with games in education.”
“But everything game-like is not a game. And while game purists may wince at this simplification, it helps to consider games in education in terms of gamification, simulation and (simply) games. The three approaches aren’t always exclusive – they’re more of a continuum, or a Venn diagram’s overlapping circles – but they are notably different.”
“GAMIFICATION
Gamification is the current bright-shiny of the three terms – and, as a result, is the most used and frequently misused. But the cleanest definition is straightforward: gamification is adding game elements and mechanics to things that aren’t designed to be games.”
Check out the rest of the article here.
Geckocap is a better method to manage your child’s asthma medication. Find out more here
HealthBiz Decoded: The Usage of Gamification in Healthcare
This is an interesting article by HealthBiz Decoded that explains the way gamification benefits health patients as a motivator. Zichermann, author of The Gamification Revolution, states that “games are designed to help raise people’s engagement now in a way that’s more powerful than what we’ve had before.”
GeckoCap is utilizing gamification to increase engagement of asthmatic children with their medication in order to improve long term medical adherence.
Read the whole article here.
Geckocap is a better method to manage your child’s asthma medication. Find out more here
