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Ready player one: the marriage of video games and medical technology

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Theo West
Ready player one: the marriage of video games and medical technology

Gaming is becoming an increasingly popular technique to assist make medical processes and information more entertaining and engaging, from occupational therapy to clinician training. Chloe Kent investigates these initiatives to learn more about how video games are being used in medical settings.


Amblyotech's Dig Rush app uses 3D glasses and a tablet to offer different pictures to each eye via different gaming features, such as cartoon mole creatures mining and collecting various things. The game requires both eyes to cooperate in order to improve the patient's binocular vision.

Early clinical trials have shown improvements in vision for both children and adults with lazy eyes, with a faster start than typical therapies such as wearing an eye patch.


A video game that helps with cognitive function.

The ailment of amblyopia is far from the only one for which remedies are being gamified. Akili Interactive is creating a line of prescription video games that will use specialized algorithms and gaming technologies to improve cognitive function in people with neurological problems.

The EndeavorRx therapy is Akili's primary product, a tablet-based game aimed to increase brain function in the prefrontal cortex by having the user multi-task increasingly complicated activities. It is intended to improve attention function in children aged 8 to 12 who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).


"Our firm is really flourishing on the concept that gaming psychology and gaming technology can change the way that information is delivered to physicians and healthcare practitioners," says Level Ex vice-president and medical director Eric Gantwerker.


Making something that might otherwise be uninteresting or unenjoyable into a video game effectively makes the process more engaging. The more pleasant material is to absorb, whether it is a therapist in training or a youngster with ADHD increasing their attention abilities, the more likely it is to remain in the memory.

"There are all these deep psychology words like compulsion loops and flow states that describe how games have a very good way of drawing people into the experience. If a game is too dull, too difficult, or not at all

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