How Gamification in Healthcare can Improve Patient Engagement and Outcomes?
Have you ever wondered why an alert that notifies you of completing a milestone for a certain number of steps or earning a badge for drinking 8 glasses of water in a day brings a smile to your face?
This is not only because it’s important from the aspect of reaching your daily health goals. The alert adds the element of gamification to your task of drinking water, which then encourages you.
Similarly, healthcare professionals employ strategies that keep you motivated to take charge of your health journey and remain invested in it. But the gamification strategy is so much more than applying game principles.
The success rate of gamification in healthcare lies within the psychology of a person and the ability to deliver a holistic approach. Human beings are naturally competitive and love a challenge.
Their sense of accomplishment influences their drive for results and proactive engagement in an activity. When a reward and incentive are the final outcome, they’re more interested and ready to set gears in motion.
The Intent of Gamification in Healthcare
We live in a world where the healthcare sector has its fair share of opportunities and challenges. In such a scenario where the number of chronic diseases and illnesses is rising, so is the growing concern of the human population.
The healthcare industry is looking at key trends and insights to intuitively embrace the challenge and promote the adoption of the benefits of emerging trends in technology. Whether it’s a wearable or a mobile application, you cannot underscore the importance of technology in healthcare.
Content gamification is one trend that is on the rise, and when coupled with technology, it reigns supreme. It’s certainly an area of promise, with experts touting the growth to reach USD 27.6 billion by 2031.
There are multiple reasons that gamification can be seamlessly integrated into the healthcare system. The following elements drive a simple workflow that unravels the underlying process:
Let’s explain it further.
Connecting Patients with the Impact of Gamification
Patients usually lack awareness of their conditions. Hence, their level of knowledge of the outcomes depends on the information from the healthcare provider or the caregiver.
This can limit the patient’s understanding since not all medical personnel can dedicate their time to making the patient understand the intricacies of the disease.
Here’s where a digital assistant, like an application with a reliable and fact-checked resources hub, can feed the patients the right amount of information at the right time. The patient or the doctors can add their details, medical history, reports, and all the necessary information in the application.
Next, the application can monitor the progress by assigning levels to the patient. To keep the patients engaged, healthcare providers can reward them with points, badges, and prizes after successfully completing a task or activity.
For instance, for patients with a heart condition, taking their medication on time and recording it on the app can lead to winning points. Further, the application can also have daily or weekly challenges which can keep the patients motivated to achieve their goals.
Every milestone accomplished by the patients leads to an outcome that not only supplements the therapies and treatment plans prescribed by the doctor but also keeps the patient involved in the results. After all, participation is crucial and essential for quicker recovery.
Gamification Methods to Improve Patient Engagement and Outcomes
Have you ever used a smartwatch or any other fitness tracker?
If yes, then you know that the smart device gives you a detailed wellness report along with health metrics trends and alerts for meals and water consumption daily. Now, consider making it a habit to check your fitness tracker to monitor your heart condition, glucose levels, sleep profile, and so forth.
This is where the game design and mechanics employed in the fitness apps are successful. This is because they’re not only helping patients lead an active lifestyle but also encouraging them to identify patterns and trends that can be detrimental to their health.
Similarly, we have several methods to improve the overall patient engagement levels and outcomes with gamification in learning:
Personalized Treatment Plans
The healthcare system today is focused on patient-centric outcomes, and hence, doctors work in close collaboration with health tech to understand which treatment plan will work before it’s tried on the patient.
Here, there’s no room for error since all the probable outcomes are worked out in a hyper-realistic environment with the help of virtual reality.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also help in coming up with solutions and building scenarios that can be worked in the virtual environment. The result is a treatment plan customized to the special needs and preferences of the patient.
Gamification helps keep the patients engaged by giving them continuous feedback and bite-sized content in the form of tips and solutions to make changes in their lifestyles or habits.
For instance, applications that promote mental health will track the records and activities of the patient to determine their stress levels.
Once quantified, a thorough evaluation will notify the patients of how to reduce their stress by redirecting them to an interactive video where they can answer a series of questions to get relevant feedback in real-time.
The patient can even connect and consult with the experts online in case of emergencies.
Interactive and Engaging Environments
Many healthcare applications and environments use storytelling and avatars to strike a chord with patients.
Imagine if you were able to assign a name to your character in a story built around your healthcare journey. It’s like living in a video game, and the only difference is that the patient is learning more and more about their condition through the gameplay.
For instance, they can be rewarded and secure spots on the leaderboard if they take their injections on time or eat nutritious meals. Through this method, the patients follow their treatment plans and guidance stringently.
Also, patients feel more empowered and motivated through the entire process.
Gamification in healthcare is continuously evolving, and so are the patient needs and preferences.
Today, healthcare systems need to be well-equipped to measure and track the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of patients. Gone are the days of a single approach. Today’s patient’s needs are addressed with multi-centric plans and therapies.
The applications of gamification in healthcare aim to promote behaviors involving individuals in problem-solving and facilitate behavioral changes or habit formation. The ultimate objective is to create an environment where patients can fully utilize resources to enhance their health and overall well-being.
Hurix Digital is aware that patients who are actively involved in their care tend to adhere to treatment regimens better, have better health outcomes, require fewer hospital stays, and suffer less stress from their therapies.
Hence, we have curated game-based learning solutions for enhancing the gamification benefits for employees. Book a consultation call today!