Presentation of abstract Games for Health – Innovative Ways to Promote Health at WHO Internation Healthy Cities Conference, Athens, Greece 22/OCT/2014, Arto Holopainen, Tiina Arpola, Jyri Wuorisalo, Kuopio Innovation Ltd.

1. GAMES FOR HEALTH
INNOVATIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE HEALTH
ARTO HOLOPAINEN
TIINA ARPOLA
JYRI WUORISALO
KUOPIO INNOVATION LTD.
WHO INTERNATIONAL HEALTHY CITIES CONFERENCE
ATHENS, GREECE
22/OCT/2014

3. • Total area 338,144 km² square
kilometres, of which 10% is water with
188.000 lakes and 69% forest
• Europe’s largest archipelago, including
the semi-autonomous province of
Åland
• Distance from north to south 1,160 km
and 540 km west to east
• Population 5.5 million, 15.8 inhabitants
per km² (40.5 per square mile)
• GDP per capita: 35,571 euros (2012)
• Currency euro
Finland

4. Country ranking by percentage of
population aged 60 years or over, 2013
Rank Country 60 years or over
1 Japan 32.0
2 Italy 26.9
3 Germany 26.8
4 Bulgaria 26.1
5 Finland 26.1
6 Greece 25.4
7 Sweden 25.2
90–
80–84
70–74
60–64
50–54
40–44
30–34
20–24
10–14
0– 4
Finland population pyramid 2013
(5.5 million)
Age
Source: World Population Ageing 2013, United Nations 300 200 100 100 200 300
Males (thousands) Females (thousands)
Source: Statistics Finland

5. Finland is at a world-level benchmark in terms of eHealth
Source: eHealth and eWelfare of Finland –
Checkpoint 2011. THL report 5/2013
Source: Peer Review eHealth strategy and action
plan of Finland in a European context, MSAH,
Reports and Memorandums 2013:11
Source: Healthtech publication 2013, Finnish
Health Technology Association, FiHTA

6. Finland hosts today one of the most active and rapidly
expanding game industries in the world
Source: Finnish Game Industry 2014, Neogames

7. Games for Health - Combining Health Technology and Games
• The Games for Health is concept and process of adding
games and game-like elements to promote individual
lifestyle decisions for tackling public health priorities like
physical activity and nutrition
• The concept empowers individuals to work with their
health improvement to establish personal health goals

8. The City of Kuopio
• The City of Kuopio’s strategic goals defines that
• the services of Kuopio are customer-focused with emphasis on
preventative services
• Kuopio is a pioneer in developing welfare services
• The City of Kuopio is nationally known as forerunner in finding unique
combinations of expertise, innovation and cross-cutting know-how for the
benefit of citizens’ wellbeing

9. Games for Health Game Jam
• Gathers people with all kinds of
backgrounds together for 24 or 48
hours co-creation event
• Combines health and gaming
technologies, fast prototyping and
community participation
• Promotes entrepreneurship and
provides platform for cross-sectoral
collaboration
Global
Network
Innovative
Markets
48h
Networking and Co-operation
of companies
Companies
Funding
Collisions
New Innovations
Start-Up
Education Research
Infrastructure
Digital
Technology

10. Achievements – Examples in real life environments
• Motion sensors based game have been used with complex regional
pain syndrome (CRPS) patients at Kuopio University Hospital
• Hand-eye coordination with touchscreen gaming table
with stroke rehabilitation patients at the Finnish Brain
Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron
• Increase physical activity and decreasing sedentary time
among school-aged children using physically activating
gaming applications

11. Achievements – Examples in real life environments
• Motion sensors based game have been used with complex regional
pain syndrome (CRPS) patients at Kuopio University Hospital
• Hand-eye coordination with touchscreen gaming table
with stroke rehabilitation patients at the Finnish Brain
Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron
• Increase physical activity and decreasing sedentary time
among school-aged children using physically activating
gaming applications

13. Achievements – Examples in real life environments
• Motion sensors based game have been used with complex regional
pain syndrome (CRPS) patients at Kuopio University Hospital
• Hand-eye coordination with touchscreen gaming table
with stroke rehabilitation patients at the Finnish Brain
Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron
• Increase physical activity and decreasing sedentary time
among school-aged children using physically activating
gaming applications

15. Achievements – Examples in real life environments
• Motion sensors based game have been used with complex regional
pain syndrome (CRPS) patients at Kuopio University Hospital
• Hand-eye coordination with touchscreen gaming table
with stroke rehabilitation patients at the Finnish Brain
Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron
• Increase physical activity and decreasing sedentary time
among school-aged children using physically activating
gaming applications

17. [video]

18. Collaboration – Critical Factor
• Critical factor to create sustainable Games for
Health ecosystem is committed multi-stakeholder
collaboration
• This collaboration requires joint understanding
from policy makers, business, research, education
and users
• It is essential to build network of ecosystems
combining not only nationwide ecosystems but
also European wide as well as global

19. Conclusion
• Games for Health is new emerging field that will provide
at best new innovative services and solutions for health
promotion and helps tackling public health challenges
from local communities to global networks
• Games for Health can reach even further in future and
connect personal health record systems and public
open data sources including environmental informatics
for best possible personalised outcomes

20. ”It’s all about collaboration
and co-creation”

22. THANK YOU!
ARTO.HOLOPAINEN (AT) KUOPIOINNOVATION.FI
WWW.KUOPIOINNOVATION.FI