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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