Institute For The Future

How Can Games Make us Healthy? IFTF and HHS Discuss Games for Health

How can games make us healthy? On May 29th, the public joined 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.

This online event was inspired by a meeting of leading game designers, health researchers, and government officials hosted by the of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. During this discussion, participants will highlight key findings and emerging opportunities to use games to promote better health. The public was invited to join the discussion by particpating in the webinar and following along on Twitter at#games4health.

You can find more details in the release below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 23, 2012

Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS (ONC) Leads National Discussion on Games for Better Health & Health Care

Games for Health Webinar

May 29th 2-4pm EDT (11am-1pm PDT)

Tweet questions to experts with #games4health

Join a Discussion with Leading Experts in Health and Health Care Games to Improve Innovation and Engagement for Better Health Outcomes

WASHINGTON, DC – (May 23, 2012) The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS in partnership with the Institute for the Future and SuperBetter Labs will host a joint webinar to be held on Tuesday, May 29th, from 11 am–1 pm PDT (2 pm–4pm EDT) to discuss key opportunities for using games to improve health outcomes.

Attendees will be invited to engage with the experts directly through the use of live social media during the webinar.

National experts participating in the Webinar will include:

• Lygeia Ricciardi, Senior Policy Advisor for Consumer e-Health, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS
• Wil Yu, Director, Innovations, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS
• Jane McGonigal, PhD, Chief Creative Officer, SuperBetter Labs
• Ben Sawyer, Founder, Games for Health
• Rod Falcon, Director, Health Horizons Program, Institute for the Future
• Erin Poetter, Policy Analyst, Consumer e-Health/Innovations, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS
• Bradley Kreit, Research Director, Institute for the Future and Webinar Moderator

“Games offer a uniquely valuable tool for taking complex health data and making it meaningful and actionable to patients across a variety of demographics and health states,” states Wil Yu, Director, Innovations at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT at HHS.

The Webinar will be an interactive discussion about findings from a recent paper by IFTF, Innovations in Games: Better Health and Health Care, developed from a workshop in February 2012 at the White House Conference Center gathering on innovations in health gaming. Webinar attendees can tweet questions to #games4health. Experts will discuss key game strategies to improve health outcomes by engaging patients in their health, improving self-efficacy, promoting collaboration to enhance research and development, and leveraging other aspects of game dynamics to promote health and well-being.

Topics to be covered will include why games can improve health; federal initiatives to explore games to improve health outcomes; the latest research; challenges for the future; and opportunities for health IT, game entrepreneurship and health care professionals to engage together.

“Social games are a great way to motivate individuals and organizations to become whole-heartedly engaged in creating positive health outcomes,” said Jane McGonigal. "A game sparks curiosity, optimism, determination and creativity. It builds a sense of self-efficacy with every successful quest. And we're seeing this work for so many different kinds of players, who are tackling everything from depression to diabetes to weight loss. In the short time since we launched our game SuperBetter, players have already reported improving their real lives through our gameplay. They're breaking their health challenges into manageable quests, identifying bad guys and power-ups, and celebrating every achievement with their friends and family."

“Games open up a vision for health that is more social and participatory, which means that managing health isn’t just something that you do on your own, but potentially with others around you,” said Rod Falcon, Director, Health Horizons Program, Institute for the Future.

 

 

About the ONC

For more information about the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, visit HealthIT.HHS.gov.

 

About IFTF

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent, nonprofit strategic research group with more than 40 years of forecasting experience. The core of its work is identifying emerging trends and discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace. IFTF’s research spans a broad territory of deeply transformative trends, from health and healthcare to technology, the workplace, and human identity. The Institute for the Future is located in Palo Alto, California. More information can be found onwww.iftf.org, www.facebook.com/InstituteForTheFuture, or on twitter@IFTF.

 

About SuperBetterLabs

SuperBetter Labs' mission is to design platforms that help people lead "epic lives." The concept of an epic life is centered on developing strong social relationships, positive emotion, confronting challenges, and creating a truer sense of purpose in the real world through the use of online game mechanics, gameful IT products and other tested methods of positive social interaction. Chief Creative Officer Jane McGonigal, creator of SuperBetter, the first product of SuperBetter Labs, also co-designed Oprah’s Thank You Game for OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). More information on SuperBetter Labs can be found on www.superbetterlabs.com,www.facebook.com/superbetterlabs, or on twitter @superbetterlabs.

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For More Information

• View IFTF's full Innovations in Games: Better Health and Healthcarereport (PDF) resulting from a meeting hosted by the of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in February 2012
• Read IFTF's Future Now blog post on Exploring the Future of Games and Health