Abstract: "In 2010, the authors (Jacobs, a game design professor, Sugarman, a pediatrician, and
Rice, a psychotherapist ) started meeting to brainstorm design and play concepts for a
therapeutic, physiologically-controlled videogame intended for use by people diagnosed with
anxiety and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal was to combine cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT), narrative therapy (NT) and biofeedback supported psychophysiological selfregulation
(PSR) into a game that would engage adolescents and provide hard data on a player's
physical and emotional states during a therapy session. The game concept that emerged is
"MindGamersTM in School" (MG), a therapeutic game prototype being developed and tested
across two 6-month sessions by the authors and two teams of undergraduate game design and
development students at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Pursuing the design required half the team to learn principles, terms and methods of
strength-based, client-centered psychotherapy and their application to psychophysiological selfregulation
and biofeedback theory and practice. The other half of the team needed to engage in
understanding the current state of role-playing videogames, avatar creation systems and game
design/development processes.
This paper will describe the current game prototype and then focus on MG's design and
development process by looking at how the initial design period brought the game design to its
current state and how it has continued to influence the production process."
From the abstract: "Objective: We report the design of a trial to assess the educational efficacy of InsuOnline, a game for education of primary care physicians (PCPs). The goal of InsuOnline was to improve appropriate initiation and adjustment of insulin for the treatment of DM. InsuOnline was designed to be educationally adequate, self-motivating, and attractive.
Methods: A multidisciplinary team of endocrinologists, experts in medical education, and programmers, was assembled for the design and development of InsuOnline. Currently, we are conducting usability and playability tests, with PCPs and medical students playing the game on a desktop computer. Adjustments will be made based on these results. An unblinded randomized controlled trial with PCPs who work in the city of Londrina, Brazil, will be conducted to assess the educational validity of InsuOnline on the Web. In this trial, 64 PCPs will play InsuOnline, and 64 PCPs will undergo traditional instructional activities (lecture and group discussion). Knowledge on how to initiate and adjust insulin will be assessed by a Web-based multiple choice questionnaire, and attitudes regarding diabetes/insulin will be assessed by Diabetes Attitude Scale 3 at 3 time points-before, immediately after, and 6 months after the intervention. Subjects´ general impressions on the interventions will be assessed by a questionnaire. Software logs will be reviewed.
Results: To our knowledge, this is the first research with the aim of assessing the educational efficacy of a computer game for teaching PCPs about insulin therapy in DM. We describe the development criteria used for creating InsuOnline. Evaluation of the game using a randomized controlled trial design will be done in future studies.
Conclusions: We demonstrated that the design and development of a game for PCPs education on insulin is possible with a multidisciplinary team. InsuOnline can be an attractive option for large-scale continuous medical education to help imp
"Motion-based games help to increase
the likelihood that a patient will complete therapeutic
exercises at home by using a game context to motivate the
patients. The scope of this paper is to explore the interactive
technologies that are used to develop these games, and their
value in the context of stroke rehabilitation. The games will
be evaluated from both a result focused perspective and
patient usability perspective."
Abstract: "Twenty three interviews and four surveys were conducted as case studies investigating the
perceptions of expertise, expertise acquisition, and gaps in employment readiness for novice
game developers. Participants were primarily game development production staff and educators
involved in game related programs. Research results were compared to employability skills
research. The findings indicated that there is a great deal of alignment between them, but
employability skills may be insufficient on their own to be a reliable standalone source for
curriculum development in the game development field because of the industry's unique
characteristics. Implications from the research results, and insights from the in-depth interviews,
that may be relevant to curriculum developers include evidence for a mismatch of the values,
needs, and expectations of stakeholders; and a delineation of key characteristics of expertise and
long-term success that may be valuable for inclusion in curriculum outcomes and measures. Two
of the key characteristics identified were goal-focused passion, and holistic perspectives. Holistic
perspectives included an awareness of heuristic use of tacit knowledge. The model of an expert
learner was supported as a potential curriculum outcome focus that encapsulated the main
characteristics of expertise that novices or advanced beginners could acquire. Another
implication is that there may be a relation between expert characteristics and characteristics of
functional behaviours that are related to positive psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy."
"Strokes are a leading cause of death and disability and have been described as a "worldwide epidemic" [5]. Strokes cause disability, partial paralysis and leave up to 85% of their victims with some form of motor impairment. Stroke rehabilitation starts as soon as possible and involves repetitive movement which people find repetitive and boring. A study [1] has found that as few as 31% of people complete their exercises as recommended. Adding to this the high cost of one on one therapy and transport to see specialists, stroke rehabilitation is a major problem. Games have been trialed for stroke rehabilitation to increase patient motivation and reduce costs. This literature review aims to find out to what extent games have therapeutic value and further, what characteristics make a good game for stroke rehabilitation. We find that in order for a game to be successful it must be based on solid therapeutic principles as well as game design principles including "challenge" and "meaningful feedback". Different hardware and software can be used as long as it follows game design principles to encourage patients to perform therapeutic exercises. Games must also take into account the low morale of recent stroke victims and avoid discouraging beginners."