Using Video Games to Screen for Malaria

If you have read much of anything I write on this site, you know that I am all for anything that makes gaming a worthwhile endeavor as opposed to just a time killer.  Don’t get me wrong, killing time is sometimes worthwhile, but more beneficial byproducts are starting to become more common.

Researchers at UCLA are using crowd sourcing in the form of an online game to help in diagnosing malaria.  The press release goes into much more detail but here are some of the main points:

-The study was based on the assumption that large groups of untrained people could be trained to recognize infectious diseases at the same level as a trained pathologist.

-After playing the game, these non-experts were able to malaria affected red blood cells within 1.25% of the accuracy of trained professionals.

-While individuals make mistakes, by increasing the number of observers to 20 or even 50 you greatly improve the level of accuracy.

-The research team is also working on an algorithm to allow computer vision to make the same diagnosis, and a hybrid version to further increase accuracy.

Malaria is a huge issue throughout Africa, and in many developing countries in general.  The problem starts with not being able to diagnose people quickly enough, followed by misdiagnosis which leads to unnecessary and expensive treatments.  If we can help alleviate some of the issues at the start of the process, the whole thing will be more effective and efficient.

The obvious major stumbling block is getting the established microbiologists to buy-in to such a simple, and unqualified approach.  This is by no means the first process that has faced scrutiny, and just like all of its predecessors, the researchers will have o prove its effectiveness through clinical trials.

Malaria is not something that we often stress about in America, but it is a very real problem in a very large portion of the world, and it needs to be addressed.  If something as simple as a game can help save lives (malaria accounts for the deaths of 20% of children’s deaths in sub-Saharan Africa) then it is definitely something worth pursuing.  Sometimes it is the simplest solution that provides the greatest results.

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May 8, 2012 I Written By

Filed Under: Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Social Networking Health
Tags:Diagnosing Malaria Game    Pathology through Games  UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science  UCLA Medical School  Worthwhile Gaming

Teeth Defender – Helping Kids Not Fear the Dentist Through a Game

Dentists may be the most feared people in the medical field.  For those who have perfect teeth maybe it isn’t as much of an issue, but for people who really have to get a lot of work done it can be a miserable experience.  Kids are especially vulnerable to this fear with their lower pain tolerance, and the fact that they just generally scare easier.

One simple way to eliminate fear is to distract someone so that they don’t even notice what is going on.  In a lot of ways that is exactly what games do; they distract us from other things.  Sometimes they distract us from things we are supposed to be doing, but in places like the dentist’s office, they can help distract us from an unpleasant experience.

Students from the Technical University Delft in the Netherlands are developing a game to help kids get through the scary experience going to the dentist can be.  The game is played on a set of special glasses with a simple game controller.  As you may expect the bad guys are candy and soda, and the good guys are toothbrushes and toothpaste.

While the game obviously cannot physically get rid of the fear experienced at the dentist, but it can provide a nice distraction.  It also helps the dentist in doing their work, as the glasses start to go dark if the patient closes their mouth.  So not only does the patient get a little distraction, the dentist gets some help with their work.

The game is still in development, and should be released in a pilot version by the middle of next year.

A more in-depth article can be found here, but it is written in Dutch.

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November 28, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
Tags:  Dentist Games  Fear of Dentists  Healthcare Games for Kids  Technical University Delft  Toothcare Games

Oovit PT: Makes Physical Therapy More Fun and Effective

Physical therapy is something that no ones wants to go through, and when we do go through it most of us are not very good at doing our exercises at home.  I know I was never very consistent when I had to do it, and that probably hindered my progress more than I would like to admit.  The reality is that the exercises are often difficult to understand from a blurry printout that has been copied a couple of hundred times.  Even if you do understand them, they are usually pretty boring and you just stop doing them after awhile.

Combining gaming and exercise is not really a new concept, but it is rapidly growing in popularity.  It is along those same lines that New Media Medicine at the MIT Media Lab is trying to improve the effectiveness of physical therapy.  Oovit PT is a virtual rehabilitation system that helps make physical therapy for enjoyable, and also more effective.

This video gives a short demonstration of how it works:

Oovit PT was originally designed to work with the Wii remote, but has since been modified to work with wockets which are much smaller.  The smaller size encourages users to participate longer, as well as being able to track other activity and motion throughout the person’s day.  This information can be used to help assess the effectiveness of the physical therapy, as well as to help recognize activities that may be harming the patient’s progress.  It is even reasonable to think that doctors could give real-time feedback to their patients through cell phones.

It is also being developed as a CollaboRhythm plug-in to make physical therapy even more interactive.  This would allow the doctor to monitor progress, make recommendations, and provide social support.

Motion sensing devices are becoming more and more useful in the healthcare industry, and the sky really is the limit when it comes to their application.  I genuinely feel like there is nothing out of reach if we simply get the right minds working on it.

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October 27, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
Tags:Collaborhythm  Improving Physical Therapy  MIT Media Lab  New Media Medicine  Oovit PT  Physical Therapy Monitoring  Wii Remotes in Healthcare  Wockets

Striiv Launching a Portable Health Device That Requires No Input From You

Most of the apps and devices that are in development for healthcare out there require the user to input at least some amount of information.  At the very least every device requires you to push a power button, but Striiv has developed a new proprietary technology that allows users to track their physical activity to play games, and ultimately donate to charity.

This technology, called “TruMotion”, is put into a device about the size of an iPod Nano that can be attached to a belt loop or even a keychain.  During the day there is pretty much nothing you have to do as the device simply tracks your daily interactions such as walking, taking the stairs or actual exercise.  Your activity is translated to success in the games.

MyLand is the first game where as your activity increases, your island fills up with exotic plants and animals.  More games will come out over time and they will start to include other bonuses and rewards that have become so popular in most games.

Success in the games ultimately translates to donations to charity.  Initially the charities that Striiv has chosen are GlobalGiving to donate clean water to children in South America or a polio vaccine to children in India.  It really is a win win situation as you get exercise, and kids get something that quite literally can save their lives.

The device attaches to any computer using a USB port which makes it incredibly easy to go from tracking your activity on your keychain, to helping donate money to charity.  Co-founder David Wang says they are really trying to appeal to the mainstream but particularly women.  They think that combining gaming with real world movement, and essentially no input will revolutionize the fitness device sector.

The startup has raised $6 million from iD Ventures and a number of angel investors, which leads me to believe that there is some real merit to this idea.  $6 million is no small sum of money, and gives some real credibility to the idea.

They have not said where the device will be sold other than to say that they have a few big names they are discussing distribution with.  The device will retail for $99 and can be reserved right now on the company’s website.

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October 17, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
Tags:              MyLand    

Games for Health: A New Peer Reviewed Journal on the Application of Digital Games to Human Health

Since I was a little kid I have tried to convince my parents, and now my wife, that playing games is good for me.  Generally, I relied upon the argument that it helped build hand-eye coordination, which I still believe is true.  Now there is a medical journal that addresses the topic.  While not intended to support the argument of kids who just want to sit inside and play games it does provide interesting medical discussion of the benefits that gaming can have.

So that I don’t leave any of the brilliance of this new development out here is the description off of their website:

Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications (G4H) is a new, bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the development, use, and applications of game technology for improving physical and mental health and well-being. The Journal breaks new ground as the first to address this emerging, widely-recognized, and increasingly adopted area of healthcare.

Games are rapidly becoming an important tool for improving health behaviors ranging from healthy lifestyle habits and behavior modification to self-management of illness and chronic conditions to motivating and supporting physical activity. Games are also increasingly used to train health care professionals in methods for diagnosis, medical procedures, patient monitoring, as well as for responding to epidemics and natural disasters. G4H is a must for anyone interested in the research and design of health games that integrate well-tested, evidence-based behavioral health strategies to help improve health behaviors and to support the delivery of care.

Games for Health coverage includes:

  • Nutrition, weight management, obesity
  • Disease prevention, self-management, and adherence
  • Cognitive, mental, emotional, and behavioral health
  • Games in home-to-clinic telehealth systems

Games for Health key benefits:

  • Demonstrates the benefits of games for improving the way people manage their health and for the delivery of care both in for everything from autism to Alzheimer’s to heart disease and other illnesses and conditions
  • Offers simulation and training for health providers for using games to improve fitness, reduce obesity and overcome injuries, and for behavior modification for those suffering from battlefield post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Fosters interdisciplinary dialog on controversial issues associated with games for health such as:
- Frequency, intensity and duration for minimum and optimum results
- Socio-economic and demographic factors in use, compliance and results
- Injuries and unintended consequences and improper usage and techniques
      - Powerful editorial team comprised of the world’s leading researchers, industry    experts and health professionals using games for health

      Audience: health professionals; researchers in fields of physiology, psychology, psychiatry, communications, public health, education, sociology, humanities and computer science; game developers; health care providers; occupational and physical therapists; for-profit game developers; and retailers of games and gaming equipment; among others.

      In all seriousness, I feel that gaming can provide a good influence for health.  Systems like the Nintendo Wii, XBox Kinect, and the Playstation Move are getting kids, and adults, off the couch and at least moving a little.  Some of those games build up a pretty good sweat even.  Way beyond that new games are helping educate people with serious illnesses, and helping people to better manage their health.

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      August 24, 2011 I Written By

      Filed Under: Health Care  Health Games  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care


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