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"On May 29th, 11am-1pm PDT (2-4pm EDT), you'll have the chance to join leading experts in health and health care games-including game designer Jane McGonigal, Lygeia Ricciardi of Health and Human Services, and researchers from IFTF-in a live Webinar discussion to explore opportunities for using games to improve health outcomes."

Abstract: "Adolescent obesity is an increasing challenge, and pervasive social health games hold much promise for promoting sustained healthy behaviors. Researchers and d esigners of these systems have many potential theories and existing best practices at their disposal. Our study, grounded in participatory design, shows which ones matter - both for pervasive social health games and within the cultural context of a community we studied over the course of three years. We worked with 112 US middle school students from a lower - income community in a series of participatory design exercises focused on social rewards for everyday physical activity. In our analysis, we discuss design implications in four key areas : social presence, gender effects, incentives and competition. We show how these themes manifested in students' designs and why they were particularly important to our participa nts. We then use our findings to suggest design strategies for youth - focused pervasive social health games."

Report from the Games for Health conference points to US government interests and potential regulatory considerations

"Jane McGonigal's Super Better: A game for your health (video) The renowned game designer sits down with SmartPlanet's Sumi Das to talk about her new online social game, which debuts today and promises to help people build their personal resilience against health ailments."

Games for Health Salon by Gaming with a purpose On December 1, 2011 the Association ‘Gaming with a Purpose’ organized a Salon on ‘Games for Health’ in Vienna. Local experts explained and discussed Games for Health.(features videos and presentation slides)

"a casual game that addresses childhood cancer: Besides mere entertainment, a health game that focuses on cancer may serve as a clinical tool in order to teach children about the particularities of the disease and initiate discussion among cancer patients, their parents and medical staff. In this context, the results of an empirical study revealed a generally high acceptance of the health game among young patients, while parents and medical staff highlighted the educational potential of health games addressing cancer. Additionally, we discuss the challenges of evaluating digital games in a hospital setting which were revealed during the evaluation phase."

Health Games Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio (RWJF), has updated its online health games database-the only one of its kind-by adding advanced search features to enhance the user experience. These updates make the database more accessible to new audiences and easier to search through saved searches and new item alerts.

Potential applications for therapy, electronic health records, operating rooms

Abstract: "Persuasive games are an effective approach for motivating health behavior, and recent years have seen an increase in games designed for changing human behaviors or attitudes. However, these games are limited in two major ways: first, they are not based on theories of what motivates healthy behavior change. This makes it difficult to evaluate why a persuasive approach works. Second, most persuasive games treat players as a monolithic group. As an attempt to resolve these weaknesses, we conducted a large-scale survey of 642 gamers' eating habits and their associated determinants of healthy behavior to understand how health behavior relates to gamer type. We developed seven different models of healthy eating behavior for the gamer types identified by BrainHex. We then explored the differences between the models and created two approaches for effective persuasive game design based on our results. The first is a one-size-fits-all approach that will motivate the majority of the population, while not demotivating any players. The second is a personalized approach that will best motivate a particular type of gamer. Finally, to make our approaches actionable in persuasive game design, we map common game mechanics to the determinants of healthy behavior."

"a national program that provides scientific leadership and resources to advance the research, design and effectiveness of digital games and game technologies that promote health. It is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio and headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara"

Conference information for Games for Health 2012, taking place in Boston, June 12-14.

"Tom Baranowski of Baylor College of Medicine, Willis Gee of Cigna, Cameron Lister of Brigham Young University, Kevin Werbach of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and Rhett Woods of Rally Health spoke with iHealthBeat about the growing use of digital gaming to encourage healthy behaviors and reduce costs."

From the introduction: "we conduct two large - scale studies of gamer's health behavior, their associated determinants, and the influence of various 2 [persuasive technology] PT strategies on various gamers ' personalities. The aim is to answer the following research questions : Q1. Is it possible that membe rs of one gamer type will respond differently to various persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants from members of other gamer types ? Q2. Which persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants are suitable for designing persu asion games for various gamer types? Q3. Can persuasive strategies and theoretical determinants be mapped to common game mechanics? Q4. To what extent can we employ the one - size - fits - all approach and what persuasive strategies support one - size - fits - all approach ?

"We have created a suite of physical computing activity games for Humana's Innovation Center office space - using web-connected sensors embedded in clothing, mobile devices, toys, exercise equipment, home and office accessories and appliances, and even buildings themselves. These challenges encourage people to be more physically active through social web-based games. Each experience is connected to the Humana employees' RFID badges, which allows them to participate in scheduled events, accrue points, and win top scores. A major component of every one of these games is the social platform behind them, which has been proven to be a major motivator in building and maintaining enthusiasm for healthy living. The ideas are developed through collaborative brainstorms, facilitated by Tellart and including Humana Innovation Center personnel. Tellart then refines the ideas, proposing and implementing several of them per round as medium-fidelity prototypes for the office."

game based science learning, science and health games linked in sidebar

Largest public study of video game playing conducted by University of Vancouver researcher

Ongoing study funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development involving some 300 minority youths ages 9 t0 14 based on research that skills learned in video game play will translate into real life personal health management

Report from the Canadian Association of Information Science meeting focusing on game research. Features audio and slides for the presentation "Gaming Works: Mental Health and Wellness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games" by Diane Rasmussen Neal and Caroline Whippey (scroll down page for presentation)

A journal recently launched by Mary Ann Liebert publishers features peer-reviewed articles on the application of video games to health management

Report of a session from the Connected Health Symposium hosted by Partners Healthcare in Boston this week