Comments on: Board gaming for medical and public health education

By: Mike Rhode

Mike Rhode — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:22:14 +0000

Back in the late 80s-early 90s, we at the NMHM collected a 5 1/4″ floppy computer game where one had to operate on a patient. I think everyone who tried killed them all. If there’s any interest, shoot me a line at rhode@afip.osd.mil and I’ll go over to Historical Collections and make them drag it out.

By: Mike Barnkob

Mike Barnkob — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:58:14 +0000

Hi again – no I actually only know mine, would love to find others.

I don’t know how I could forget it, but theres also http://fold.it/portal/ a pretty advanced game that will learn you about proteins (which at least is interesting when you’re in medschool) AND help humanity :-)

Then theres a game which I’ve only read about, but seems like a crazy good idea. You run around at a disaster scene like in a 3d person shooter, but instead off shooting, you have to decide how to treat each patient: http://www.breakawayltd.com/serious-games/solutions/healthcare/

Mike

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:26:23 +0000

Jan Eric's comment reminds me of the old idea of the power of imagination, which Lars Ole Andersen investigated in his Ph.D.-thesis "Før placeboeffekten: Indbildningskraftens virkning i 1800-tallets medicin", 2005 (the manuscript has now been revised and is soon coming out on Museum Tusculanum Press). Would be interesting to follow up on Lars' analysis with a study of gaming as a method of treatment (and compare it with a variety of reports on the curative effect of religious beliefs etc.).

By: Jan Eric

Jan Eric — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:17:55 +0000

Serious games is indeed a rapidly emerging field which addresses health care professionals as well as the public. Recently, first-person shooter games have even been used as a complement to chemotherapy. Adolescents suffering from cancer have been reported to better cope with their illnesses when playing the specially designed game Re-mission. It's fascinating to see how a form of entertainment, often considered to do more harm than good, is used as technique to teach and empower patients.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:25:01 +0000

Wow, a whole new universe is opening up, at least to me. A quick browse also disclosed a discussion list (http://www.gamesforhealth.org/maillist2.html) that has been thriving since 2004, and a public health games website (http://www.publichealthgames.com/wp) (none of them have been updated since October 2008, though). Jan Eric has been talking about serious games and informal education in medicine for a while now, so he may have much more in-depth stuff about recent developments in this exciting field.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:50:19 +0000

There is a long history of medical computer games as well. Particularly Theme Hospital (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/theme-hospital), published in 1997 by Electronic Arts, was succesful and fun to boot. The game is a simulation, in which the player has to build a hospital, manage staff and attract patients. A similar game is the recently published Hospital Tycoon (http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/hospital-tycoon), published in 2007 by Codemasters. My favorite medically themed game (well, sort of medically themed) is the fantastic Psychonauts from 2005, in which the player has to delve into the minds of a group of kids to stop the villain from tampering with their minds. A truly original and brilliant game, by any standards. I have no doubt that we will see more medically themed games in the future, and particularly games along the lines of the protein-folding game Foldit (which we have written about on this blog before). Everyone, including scientist, is increasingly realising the co-creative potential of the participatory web, and there will no doubt be a rush to explore this potential.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:31:18 +0000

Hi Jørgen, I’m afraid most epidemiologists aren’t particularly aware of the danger of a world-wide zombie outbreak :-) But playing Left4Dead might help raise their awareness, of course, so that this VIA (Very Infectious Agent) could then be incorporated into the hopefully forthcoming World of Outbreak. My inner eye can vividly see the landscape of WoO, particularly how my doctor-avatar (Dr Jones) has to make tough decisions about whether he should fight HIVs, SARSs, obesity memes, rapidly mutating influenza viruses, or zombies.

By: Jørgen Tietze

Jørgen Tietze — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:37:20 +0000

This is completely OT, but the Pandemic-cover reminded me of a game featuring (zombie) »infection«: http://www.l4d.com/home.php

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:53:36 +0000

Hi Mike, that’s interesting! I guess one could imagine all possible game formats, from simple board games, via multiplayer online role-playing games á la World of Warcraft, to full scale training situations. I guess my tranquil temperament favors board games though :-)
(btw I didn’t know about your blog — are you aware of other medical blogs in Dk?)

By: Mike Barnkob

Mike Barnkob — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:48:09 +0000

I would love to try both games out -

At SDU in Odense they recently made a 24 hour game called Global Health Risk Game for medical student, where different groups of student had to handle a starting epidemic. You can read about it here:

http://issuu.com/sundoghed/docs/10-15?mode=embed&documentId=080606092749-8420b01d2c774407a89ebe634b585887&layout=grey

Mike