1. Serious Games and digital
interactive technologies
for Healthcare
Lucia Pannese
Kranj, 25 September 2012

2. Brief History of Games for Healthcare
Games and Simulations for Healthcare are not new!
The Nursery Rhyme “game” Ring a ring o‘ Roses is associated with the Plague
Children play “Doctors and Nurses” etc…

3. Games for Collaborative Learning
Collaborative Learning is growing in importance and
games are now being applied to support collaboration and
knowledge sharing

4. Fields of application of Serious Games
& simulations in Healthcare
 Supporting therapy, rehabilitation after severe illness
 Self‐management of illness /chronic conditions (e.g. diabetes)
 “Exergames“ ‐ motivating and supporting physical activity and
healthy lifestyle
 Anonymous group therapy
 Preventive medicine
 Behavioural change
 Healthy Nutrition
 Train healthcare professionals (medical procedures, methods for
diagnosis, patient monitoring …..)
 Doctor‐patient communication

5. Training of Medical Staff

6. Training for Rare and Hostile Situations
Triage Trainer is a good example of training
medical professionals in emergency situations

7. Simulation of Medical Conditions
“Dying Dave” and “Patient Rescue” are examples
of high fidelity representation of medical
conditions and link real‐world data to
visualisations

9. Haptic Devices in Simulations
Haptic devices in simulations develop physical
skills: multisensory learning experience

10. Virtual World Visualisations
Virtual World 3D visualisations help to orient staff
and patients

11. Games for Staff at Hospital
Hoists are used to move and handle
children in situations when manual
handling is a high risk.
There is a risk of injury if the equipment is
not used correctly. GOSH created a 30
minute simulation to reinforce practical
training for operators using a hoist in a
practical setting.
GOSH:
Great Ormond Street Hospital

12. GOSH Video

13. The ImREAL Project
www.imreal-project.eu ImREAL @ImREAL_project

14. The Mirror Project

15. The Virtual Pain Manager
‐ target group: nurses
‐ simulation contents: student nurses must use a Patient Controlled
Analgesia (PCA) machine with a post‐operative patient in order to
control and reduce the patient’s pain sufficiently, ideally within 48 game
hours

16. Virtual ECG
- target group: students and professionals
‐ simulation contents: user is supposed to place electrodes correctly on the
body of the patient in order to connect the ECG machine and record the ECG
‐ online, high fidelity, simulation that aims to reduce the incidence of
inaccurate ECG scans by teaching accurate recording of ECG scans through
practice. Learners attach the ECG electrodes and cables to a ‘patient’ and
record an ECG.

17. Behavioural Change, Nutrition

18. Games for Behavioural Change
„Pos or Not“ is a viral game to raise awareness of
HIV/Aids and change behaviour

19. Self‐management of illness and chronic conditions
Packy & Marlon:
‐ adventure game for the Nintendo platform
popular in the early 1990s
‐ target group: diabetic children and adolescents
‐ game contents: player has to manage his character’s blood‐glucose monitoring,
insulin use, and food selections while he tries to save a diabetes summer camp
from marauding rats and mice.
‐ studies and researches: clinical trial of outpatients at Stanford University Medical
Center and Kaiser Permanente clinic, the game reduced their diabetes‐related,
urgent‐care, and emergency room visits by 77 percent.

20. Smash Your Food
An award‐winning mobile game called Smash
Your Food is making strides among kids by
allowing them to virtually smash junk food into
oblivion, aiming for both fun and gross‐out
appeal, all while learning about nutrition.
• Created by Washington‐based nutritionist
Marta De Wulf,
• game was released in late March as an iPad
app
• winner in First Lady Michelle Obama's "Apps
for Health Kids" Competition, part of her Let's
Move! initiative.

21. MY FOOD FIGHT!®
MY FOOD FIGHT!® is a fun interactive journey to combat the health
enemies that we each encounter daily. Focused on nutrient density in
food, players are rewarded for their consumption of high nutrient dense
and organic foods

22. Train Nutrition Seriously
• Portal with recipes
• Nutrition database
• Mobile game
• Community

23. Rehabilitation, Physical Exercise

24. Supporting therapy
Hope Labs Re‐Mission Game:
‐ target group: adolescent and young‐adult cancer
patients
‐ game contents: player controls a robot that enters
the bodies of cancer patients in order to destroy diseased cells; meanwhile he
has to monitor and manage side effects of cancer and its treatment
‐ studies and research: improving of both treatment adherence as well as
indicators of cancer‐related self‐efficacy and knowledge

25. Exergames: Dance Dance Revolution
‐ developed in Japan for children
‐ game contents: music video game that requires players to
dance in progressively more complicated and strenuous patterns
in time with music.
‐ studies and research: game has been implemented in schools in West
Virginia
→ improvements in aerobic capacity, blood pressure, and overall fitness
level as well as children's self‐esteem

26. Exergames ‐ Recent design trends
Many incentives in the USA to fight against severe
health problems and lack of healthy culture (food, etc.)
The most recent Exergames are based on special
hardware / input devices (e.g. Wii Remote and Wii
Balance Board for Nintendo Wii, Kinect for Xbox
360, PlayStation Move for PlayStation 3 or Gamercize,
which connects exercise machines such as stationary cycles
and steppers to diverse video game consoles)
→ players' movements are turned into the game's
controller Gamercize played on PS2
 Exergaming, nowadays, can be found in specialist rooms of
larger fitness facilities or gyms designed only for exergaming
programmes

27. Effectiveness of Exergames
A study by the University of California San Diego and San Diego State
University of 29 seniors and the Wii exercise showed a decrease in
depression as well as an improvement of mental capacity, emotional
health, social aspects and pain
Studies have shown that Gamercize notably increases players' motivation
to keep up their exercise routine
Furthermore, combining cardiovascular exercise and balance practice has
been shown to increase academic success
Research projects have shown that exergaming can connect players over a
network and, this way, support the social power of exercising together

28. Microsoft Kinect Xbox
Kinect is an input device developed by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game
console and Windows PCs
Features:
 Motion sensor: tracks your entire body
 Skeletal tracking: Kinect creates a digital skeleton based on depth data
 Facial recognition: Kinect collects physical data to be able to recognize you
Voice recognition: microphones recognize and seperate your voice from
other noises in the room

29. The Kinect Effect
People have started to use Kinect in creative ways: not only for
entertainment but also in education and healthcare sectors.
Some innovative examples:
Integration of Kinect into the therapy of autistic people (e.g. at the Lakeside
Center in Issaquah, WA)
Supporting the rehabilitation progress of stroke and other brain injury
patients by motivating them to move certain parts of their body (e.g. Royal
Berkshire Hospital in Reading, UK)
 Usage in hospitals, for example in operating rooms, to help doctors navigate MRIs
and CAT scans with a wave of their hand (e.g. Tedesys in Spain)
→ this way they can avoid bacteria infections since they do not have to
touch anything
 Usage for vitual anonymous group therapy through the creation of a Kinect avatar

30. More to come….
Rehab4Life:
Engaging Game‐based Home Rehabilitation for Improved Quality of Life
Combining Nintendo Wii / Sony PlayStation Move / Microsoft KINECT +
Serious Games for rehabilitation at home after hospitalization
REHAB4LIFE will transform the patient’s home in a place where physical and
cognitive rehabilitation process can be performed in an intensive and
engaging though properly controlled way, while promoting social inclusion
and quality of life.

31. Other scenarios

32. Scottish Qualifications Authority
complete tasks related to the
knowledge you would be expected
to demonstrate in a real-life retail
environment
Patient’s safety and risk prevention

33. The iSpectrum Project
Introducing autistic people into working environments:
• Office
• Gardening center
• Supermarket

35. SEGAMED conference: 5‐6.10 Nizza

36. Thank you!
Any questions?
Lucia Pannese www.i-maginary.it
CEO, imaginary srl @imaginary_italy
Innovation Network Politecnico di Milano FB: imaginary
lucia.pannese@i-maginary.it YouTube: imaginary srl
Skype: lueolli
@lpannese