1. Video Games
& Mobile Apps
for Health and
Healthcare
Aaron Gray, M.D.
Depts of Family Medicine &
Orthopaedics
University of Missouri

2. Overview
 Why Games for Health?
 Benefits of Video Games
 Gamification
 Mobile Apps/Games
 Microsoft Kinect

3. Yearly conference that brings together those in video
game industry with those in medicine and academics

4. RWJF Support
 Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation’s
Pioneer portfolio has given $9 million for
Games for Health exploration
 “Pioneersaw games as a promising but
unconventional area for exploration, with
the potential to lower costs of patient
care and drive significant improvements
in people’s health and health care.”

5.  Excellent database that looks at effectiveness of
interactive games for health
 Also provides grant funding for projects

6. How Games can be used for
Health (from Archimage.com)
 Change player’s health behavior
 Getting a child to eat more fruits and
vegetables
 Change player’s health attitude about a
health topic
 Being physically activity isn’t as hard as it seems
 Increase player’s knowledge about a health
topic
 Nutrition

7. How Games can be used for
Health (from Archimage.com)
 Helpplayer make a difficult health
decision
 Choosing a cancer treatment option
 Engage player to make an otherwise
boring topic fun

8. Wait, I thought video games
only made kids fat?

9. Benefits of Video Games
 Increasedcreativity in kids with regards to
drawing pictures and writing stories than
those who didn’t play video games.
Jackson et al. Computers in Human Behavior, 2011.
 Improved treatment adherence and
indicators of self-efficacy in adolescents
undergoing cancer therapy using a video
game intervention
Kato, et al. Pediatrics, 2008.

10. Parents should play too!
Girls who played
video games with
their parents had
decreased levels of
internalizing and
aggressive behaviors
and heightened
prosocial behavior

11. Video Games for Health
 Many different types of games for many
different populations

13. “It made it a lot more fun,” said Gladys
Moore, 89, while cyber-racing through
the streets of “Palm Beach”

14. Re-Mission (by HopeLab)

15. Re-Mission (by HopeLab)

16. Gamification
 “is
the integration of game mechanics or
game dynamics in order to drive
participation and engagement”
 Examples?

17. Games that aren’t games

18. Zamzee – What is it?
A digital accelerometer
connected to a website
with virtual awards,
badges, and real rewards.
Measures and
encourages physical
activity in children

19. Zamzee – Does it work?
 448 middle school kids from across the
country in study with half using Zamzee
 Intervention group - 59% increase (45 min.
per week) in moderate to vigorous
activity (MVPA)
 102% increase in MVPA in girls

20. Rewards and Levels on
Zamzee

21. Mobile Apps for Health

22. Smartphones are everywhere!
 February 2012 only 12% of Americans
reported have no cell phone
 62% of 25-34 year olds own smartphones
 Half of mobile phones in the US are
smartphones
 Around 100 million people have
smartphones in United States

23. Smartphones = Multiple
sensors disguised as a phone
 GPS
 Accelerometer
 Compass
 Gyroscope

24. Combined Mobile Apps &
Websites
 Many successful health and fitness
products combine mobile apps and more
detailed websites
 Social networking and support groups
can provide great help for patients trying
to reach goals
 Let’s look at some apps…

25. Want to eat healthy and stay
active?
 There are MANY, MANY apps for that!

29. Let’s try to make running a
little more fun!

30. Zombies can get anyone to run

32. Zombies not your thing…
Picasso in France in 1971. Photograph: Ralph Gatti

34.  YOU are the Pencil

35. Superbetter
 Web and mobile based “game” to
empower users to battle anxiety,
depression, insomnia, overeating, lack of
exercising, etc.
 Developed by Jane McGonigal

36. The Origins of Superbetter

37. Microsoft Kinect -
You are the controller

38. Microsoft Kinect Motion Sensor Device

40. Nike+ Kinect

41. Kinect Skeletal Tracking Demo

42. Possibilities of Kinect
 Home physical therapy
 Balance testing and training
 Injury prevention
 Endless …

44. Microsoft Application
Development Lab at RJI
Partnership with Microsoft and Univ. of
Missouri to promote app development
Full time lead developer and lab manager
Great location for partnerships of different
schools/departments on campus to
develop innovative solutions

45. @MizzouSportsDoc