Health Services in Crisis? Can Gamification Make a Difference? As I prepare to journey to Asia to speak at conference in Thailand, Malaysia and Korea, this month’s newsletter shifts the gamification focus to Health applications. There are many challenges facing society over the coming months and years and public healthcare is one of the most important. Technology has had a major impact on global health and is both a source of problems and a potential solution. I have been spending time trying to develop collaborative partnerships with professionals in the health sector and this newsletter shares some of my experiences and my personal perspectives on issues and solutions.

1. Focus on Health
March 2014
Gamification is a process which shapes the world (achieves goals/objectives)
by influencing the actions, behaviours, characteristics and state of entities within the world
(through the use of games strategies and enabling technologies)
Health Services in Crisis?
Can Gamification Make a Difference?
As I prepare to journey to Asia to speak at conference in Thailand, Malaysia and Korea, this month’s newsletter shifts the
gamification focus to Health applications. There are many challenges facing society over the coming months and years and public
healthcare is one of the most important. Technology has had a major impact on global health and is both a source of problems and
a potential solution. I have been spending time trying to develop collaborative partnerships with professionals in the health sector
and this newsletter shares some of my experiences and my personal perspectives on issues and solutions.
In this Newsletter
 Reflections on Global Health Issues
 Population Healthcare Workshop
 Forthcoming Serious Games for Health Events
 Gamification for Health White Paper
 Gamification Theory and Practice White Paper
 Upcoming Conferences and Seminars LIsting
 Slideshare Archives
Reflections on Global Health Issues
Ask Not what the National Health Service can do for YOU
Rather what YOU can do for the National Health Service
Recent News Article blaming obesity on welfare payments
I have been privileged to be involved in the use of games and immersive technologies for several years, beginning with organising
exhibition stand technology for a quiz game about epilepsy in Prague almost 20 years ago. Over the last decade, health and
medicine has been the focus of many serious games developments encompassing a spectrum of applications from simulations
designed to train medical professionals through devices using brainwaves to control games to games targeting awareness raising
and behavioural changes.
More recently, I have been exploring the potential of lifestyle wearable sensor technologies for personal health management and
have seen first hand the amazing results that gamification and enabling technologies can deliver. This is covered in more detail
later in this newsletter. Over the last 6 weeks or so, I have been spending more time with clinicians and health professionals at
events focusing on delivering better value healthcare and these have given me an insight into the dedication of medical
professionals to their work and the challenges they are facing in the 21st
century. Whilst I am left in no doubt about their expertise
and commitment to their profession, I cannot help draw the conclusion that our health service is in crisis and sleep-walking to a
disaster that will impact the whole of society.
Observing health professionals and trying to collaborate with them seems like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic or
watching parents try to give their child everything it asks for without seeking anything in return and then wondering why their
child isn’t grateful or turns out to be a bad person. The image at the head of this article articulates one of the problems which I see
very evidently, not just in healthcare but in almost every aspect of society. We all pay taxes and/or insurance to finance the
provision of health services when we need them. Unlike motor insurance, there are no “No-claims” discounts and so we expect
the best treatment the health service can provide when we need it on demand. The lady in the news article is demanding a gastric
bypass and a personal trainer because she spent her benefits money on junk food that made her obese. She accepts no
responsibility for her lifestyle and whether she gets a gastric band or not, it seems inevitable that she will be using health service
resources to treat conditions related to her lifestyle.
My first conclusion is that we need strategies which change public health culture to get every individual citizen to accept some
responsibility for personal health management and I believe that a combination of gamification strategies (not games) and

2. enabling technologies like wearable sensors will make a dramatic difference to our ability to address global health challenges like
obesity, diabetes and dementia.
My second conclusion is that health professionals are totally unaware of the impact of technology on knowledge professionals
across all sectors and the competition they will face from entrepreneurial non-medical professionals to deliver population
healthcare. Although there are initiatives to work with patient groups, health professionals seem blind to the necessity to co-
produce solutions by collaborating with a whole spectrum of stakeholders who could make a real difference to the health of the
nation by getting citizens to ask what they can do for the health service rather than the reverse.
Population Healthcare Workshop
Professor Sir Muir Gray’s Better Value Healthcare Population Healthcare CPD course
This month, I attended one of Professor Sir Muir Gray’s Population Healthcare workshops at Sleaford in Lincolnshire. As with the
previous CLARHC conference in Loughborough last month, I was the only non-medical professional at the workshop. Professor
Gray is a very engaging and intelligent speaker and a Director of the Better Value Healthcare (www.bvhc.co.uk) company. He is
very clearly in touch with healthcare trends across the world and the workshop focus was on how to change the culture of
clinicians to think of Population Healthcare rather than the healthcare of individual patients. For more information visit the BVHC
web site at http://www.bvhc.co.uk/
I hope to be able to collaborate with Professor Gray on Gamification strategies to support better value healthcare through citizen
empowerment and responsibility for personal healthcare management
Forthcoming Serious Games for Health Events

3. Gamification for Health White Paper
Executive Overview
This White paper is intended to stimulate discussion and understanding of the role of gamification strategies and enabling
technologies as they can be applied to healthcare and public health policies. It argues that society is on the cusp of a revolution in
public health strategies brought about by the combination of serious resource constraints, demographic health time-bombs,
artificial intelligence developments, wearable sensor devices and unprecedented access to knowledge acquisition and publishing.
It illustrates how knowledge professionals in every sector of society have been impacted by Web 2.0 and the emergence of the
“Prosumer” phenomenon and explains some of the challenges to be faced now and in the future by health specialists and policy
makers.
The paper offers some solutions and enabling technologies that can support the development of gamification skills and strategies
to the benefit of future public health policies and outlines the benefits of adopting best practice ethical gamification strategies for
the individual and the organisation.
To view the paper, go to http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/gamification-for-health-white-paper
Gamification Theory and Practice White Paper
Addressing the Challenges of Business and Society
Executive Overview
This White paper is intended to provide an understanding of gamification and its growing importance and relevance for addressing
some of the serious challenges faced by business and society in the modern world. It argues that gamification is a vital and
ubiquitous practice for our continuing sustainable development and is a life skill that individuals and organisations need to master
in order to be successful. The paper explains the implications and results of the dramatic shift from a hierarchical society to a
networked society brought about by digital technologies and the kinds of challenges this has caused in business, education,
politics and healthcare.

4. The paper offers some solutions and enabling technologies that can support the development of gamification skills and strategies
and outlines the benefits of adopting best practice ethical gamification strategies for the individual and the organisation.
To view and/or download the paper, go to http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/gamification-and-enabling-technologies-white-
paper
Upcoming Conferences
Below is a list of forthcoming conferences – also accessible at http://www.davidwortley.com/events.html
Date Event Name / Description Location Web URL
Mar 23-27
2014
EKnow 2014 - Sixth International
Conference on Information,
Process and Knowledge
Management
Barcelona, Spain http://www.iaria.org/confere
nces2014/eknow2014.html
Mar 24-25
2014
CGAT 2014 - Computer Games and
Allied Technologies
Singapore http://www.cgames.com.sg/ #sthash.gcLLW3fc.dpbs
Mar 30 -
Apr 1 2014
Thaisim 2014 - 6th International
Thaisim Conference - Learning
with Simulations and Games
Bangkok, Thailand http://www.thaisim.org/ts14/
Apr 7-10 ICTLT - International Conference
on Teaching and Learning with
Technology
Singapore http://www.ictlt.com/
Apr-21-22 IGRSM 2014 - 7th IGRSM
International Conference and
Exhibition on Remote Sensing &
GIS
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
http://www.igrsm.com/igrsm2014
Apr 28-30 *FUBUTEC'2014*
10th Annual Future Business
Technology Conference 2014
Bruges, Belgium http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/331
Apr 29-30 18th MedTech Investing Europe
Conference
Lausanne,
Switzerland
http://www.medtechinvesting.com
May 14th Games for Health UK Conference Coventry, UK http://G4HUK.eventbrite.co.uk
May 14-16 IEEE 3rd International Conference
on Serious Games and
Applications for Health
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
http://www.ipca.pt/segah2014
May 23-24
2014
1st
International Symposium on
Simulation and Serious Games
Goyang City, South
Korea
www.seriousgamesconference.org
Mar 28th
X-Media Lab Video and Social Perth, Australia http://www.xmedialab.com/videosocial/
June 4-5 World Research and Innovation
Congress – Pioneers in Healthcare
Brussels, Belgium http://www.worldresearchcongress.com/
Jun 6-8 IED 2014 Immersive Education
Summit
Los Angeles, USA
June 11-13 ISC 2014 International Conference
on Industrial Simulation
Skovde, Sweden http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=
taxonomy/term/355
Jun 15-24 5th Jubilee International
Conference on Cartography & GIS
& Seminar with EU cooperation on
Early Warning and Disaster/Crisis
Management
Riviera, Bulgaria www.iccgis2014.cartography-gis.com
Jun 18 Digital Leaders Awards Event London http://www.digitalbydefaultnews.co.uk/digital-
leaders-
100/sponsorship-opportunities/
Jun 19-21 Infotech 2014 – 3rd
Annual World
Congress on Emerging
Technologies
Dalian, China http://www.bitcongress.com/InfoTech2014/default.as
p
Jul 2-4 Games and Learning Alliance
Conference (GaLA Conference
2014)
Bucharest, Romania http://www.galaconf.org
Jul 3-5 ICICTE 2014 - The International
Conference on Information
Communication Technologies in
Education
Kos, Greece https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1b-6wgkXZKh-
FuidgUFnWwxorIVqKhix3LGg4CjzZj58/viewform
Jul 5 – 21
2014
Oregon Youth Jamboree Oregon, USA http://oregonhibbs.com/2013/09/10/eugene-youth-
jamboree-faq/
Jul 7-9 6th EDULEARN conference -
Education and New Learning
Technologies
Barcelona, Spain http://iated.org/edulearn/
Jul 7-11 45th Annual ISAGA Conference on
Simulation and Gaming
Dornbirn, Austra http://www.isaga2014.com
Jul 17-19 8th International Conference on
Computer Graphics, Visualization,
Computer Vision and Image
Processing 2014 - CVGCVIP 2014
Lisbon, Portugal http://www.cgv-conf.org/
Aug 7-10 AMCIS 2014 - The Philosophy in
Information Systems track
provides a forum for scholars who
are open to questioning all
aspects of Information Systems
and seeking to find ways for the
field to progress
Savannah, Georgia,
USA
http://amcis2014.aisnet.org/index.php/track-list/77-
amcis-2014/103
Aug 25-28 SimTect 2014 Asia Pacific
Simulation Training Conference
Adelaide, Australia http://www.simtect.com.au/
Sep 9-11 Gameon 2014 - The 15th annual
Simulation and AI in Games
Conference
Lincoln, UK http://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/357
Sep 15-16 Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC®) Academic Summit 2014
Calgary, Canada http://nas.geocens.ca/academicsummit/

5. Sep 25-26 ICDE International Conference Moscow, Russia http://eng.mesi.ru/icde2014/
Oct 27-28
(provisional
)
Pergames Workshop Rome, Italy TBA
Nov 24-26 EiED 2014 Immersive Education
Initiative
Vienna, Austria http://europe.immersiveeducation.org/
events/ied-europe-summit-2014
Dec 1-4 SEANES 2014 - 3rd International
Conference of the South East
Asian Network of Ergonomics
Socieites
Singapore http://seanes2014.org/index.html
Archived Presentations, Images and Videos
I am archiving as many of my previous presentation, videos and event images as possible. You can access these from my web site
at :- http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html or visit my Slideshare page at :- http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/
If you would like any presentations, videos or documents circulated to my network, I am happy to provide this service free of
charge for any material relevant to readers of this newsletter. If you are interested, contact me at david@davidwortley.com.
Best Regards
Best Regards
David Wortley FRSA
Founder and CEO
GAITSS – Gamification and Immersive Technologies Strategic Solutions
Shaping the Future of Business and Society through Human Development and Motivation
Mobile Phone : +447896659695
Email : david@davidwortley.com
Skype: davidwortley
Web: http://www.davidwortley.com
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