Humana Jumps Into Health Video Game Fray

A bandwagon seems to be forming among health insurers concerning serious medical video games. I blogged previously about Re-mission here and here. Recall that CIGNA was one of the major forces behind the Re-mission effort, partnering with HopeLab’s Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Now, it appears other major health insurance companies are poised to encourage development of video games that promote good health.

In particular, insurance leviathan Humana’s Integrated Consumer Experience Division is partnering with Digitalmill and Touchtown to develop and research health and exercise games. It appears from press coverage that students over at U. Southern California will do much of the coding. USC already has a strong relationship with DARPA surrounding military training games, and has deep roots in the Hollywood special effects crowd which is all computerized these days.

With both CIGNA and Humana now behind serious games in the health sector, look for increased development of products with low profit motivations, but high health ed expectations. Results will be measured in fitness rather than bucks. Hopefully some good research will come out of these efforts as well.

References
Business Courier of Cincinnati. (2007, September 7). Humana to reach consumers through video games. [Online]. Available: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2007/09/03/daily40.html

Re-mission Revisited

Investor’s Business Daily had a nice article on Re-mission today, with more details than what I was able to confer last time I blogged about the game. Re-mission is a serious video game designed to educate young cancer patients about their condition and treatments.

The new article indicates the idea for the game sprang from the mind of Pamela Omidyar, wife of the man who founded eBay, Pierre Omidyar.

She came up with the idea while working as an immunology lab researcher and playing video games for fun after work.

She pitched the concept to oncologists and psychologists. Would it be possible, she asked, to develop a game that had scientific merit, would accurately convey how cancer affected the body, and help players develop a sense of empowerment over the disease.

Convinced the answer was yes, she founded the nonprofit Hope-Lab, which soon developed Re-Mission.

Other new info of interest: as of May, over 70,000 copies of the game have been distributed to folks in 73 countries. Recall that Re-mission is available through the mail on CD or DVD, and in English, Spanish, or French.

Video games can enhance learning without calling it that, says Alan Louie, research director of Health Industry Insights, a division of market research company International Data Corp. He credits that in part to the improved graphics, sound and movement of today’s game technology.

“Innovations in the gaming industry are making their products much more realistic, which should make it easier to develop more effective vehicles to get the point across,” Louie said.

Others who look at the big picture of video games agree that health care is a natural fit for the technology.

“The future of games and game technology in health care is sky-high,” according to Ben Sawyer, who founded Digital Mill, a Portland, Maine, consulting firm.

Look for more info on Re-mission at its official website, http://www.re-mission.net/ including details on how to order the free game.

Young Cancer Patients Learn Through Re-Mission

CIGNA Insurance and the nonprofit organization HopeLab teamed up to produce Re-Mission, a serious video game for young cancer patients. Courtney Perkes with the Orange County Register reports:

The game was designed by animators, video game makers, cell biologists and teen boys with cancer, and it features a buxom nanorobot named Roxxi. In the hands of young cancer patients, she zooms through “the world’s smallest battlefield” with her chemo blaster and radiation gun.

The video game has a serious agenda, teaching young cancer patients about treatments and therapy regimens:

Throughout the game, patients learn about side effects from chemo. In one scenario, after Roxxi blasts away cancer cells, she helps a patient take deep breaths to combat nausea.

HopeLab performed a study of effects Re-Mission had on patients. A total of 325 subjects, aged 13-29, in 34 medical facilities throughout North American and Australia participated. The study found the game helped patients adhere to therapy regimens. I can’t see if the research was ever published in a peer-reviewed journal, but it apparently was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine last year and at the International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine in London. You can read about the study on CIGNA’s site here.

Re-Mission is available for free by mail, on either CD or DVD. The game is offered in English, Spanish, or French. Visit http://www.re-mission.net/ to order direct. The game is rated T.

References

Perkes, C. (2007, July 11). New video game helps teen with cancer. Orange County Register. [Online]. Available: http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/
countywide/article_1722660.php

A Patent for Insurance Video Games

Someone has filed a patent for an educational video game (more correctly, methinks, a “serious game”) that seeks to train insurance company employees in correctly predicting future premiums. Amazingly (to me, anyway), a vast variety of game patents are filed on a regular basis. Who knew you could patent a game?