Healthcare-Enhancing Video Games

10-26-2006 | Categories:

Enhancements

Play Right, Warning: Playing these videogames may be good for your health By Nick Wingfield. WSJ October 23, 2006

Video game to help beat cancer Posted July 6, 2006 at Looneygamers

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In my Oct 11, 2006 post, Changing Behavior With Video Games, I noted
A process such as video games that engages players and allows them to safely experience in an hour the likely outcome of following, not following, or partially following a treatment plan for a given disorder would seem to hold significant promise for at least some proportion of adults as well as adolescents and children who may be less responsive to traditional didactic methods.

Well, Re-Mission comes darn close.

Re-Mission is a game, available free of charge, designed to help young people with cancer. According to
Video game to help beat cancer,

The game combines biologic accuracy with an honest depiction of the challenges faced by young cancer patients. Re-Mission’s main character, Roxxi, is a gutsy, fully-armed Nanobot who seeks out and destroys cancer cells throughout the human body, battling cancer and its life-threatening effects. Through 20 different levels of game play, Re-Mission illustrates what occurs inside the bodies of young cancer patients and how they can most effectively fight their disease.

And, the Re-Mission Outcomes Study, published earlier this year, indicated that patients who played Re-Mission demonstrated statistically significant improvements in self-efficacy, quality of life, cancer-specific knowledge, and adherence to prescribed medication regimens.

Très cool.