Gamification in Healthcare: Current & Future Uses
Unlocking Healthier Behaviors: The Power of Gamification in Transforming Healthcare

Gamification in Healthcare: Current & Future Uses

Kevin Lewis Kevin Lewis

Kevin Lewis

Vice President at BlueBin | Transformational Healthcare Leader | Pioneering AI-Driven Solutions | Champion of Resilience & Sustainability | United Nations Speaker | White House Advisor | 100+ Articles | 25+ Publications

发布日期: 2024年4月24日
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Healthcare gamification leverages game design elements to motivate patient engagement, promote healthier behaviors and improve outcomes. For healthcare organizations, the strategic value lies in making health-related tasks more engaging, thereby enhancing patient adherence to treatments, improving health education and encouraging lifestyle changes critical for chronic disease management. This approach also facilitates valuable data collection for monitoring patient progress and outcomes, optimizing healthcare resource utilization. By integrating gamification into healthcare processes, providers can achieve better clinical outcomes, reduce readmissions and increase patient satisfaction, positioning their institutions at the forefront of innovative patient care.

Current Uses of Gamification in Healthcare

  • Fitness and Wellness: Apps like Fitbit and MyFitnessPal use gamification to encourage physical activity and healthy eating. They track progress, set challenges and reward achievements with badges and/or points. Companies that can help: Fitbit, Inc., MyFitnessPal, Strava, Nike+, Jawbone UP, Garmin Connect, Under Armour’s MapMyFitness
  • Chronic Disease Management: Games and apps designed to help manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes and/or asthma, by educating patients on their condition and tracking their health metrics. Companies that can help: Mango Health, Omada Health, Propeller Health, MySugr, Glooko, Livongo, WellDoc
  • Patient Engagement and Medication Adherence: Platforms that use gamification to remind patients to take their medication, attend appointments and/or follow through with prescribed treatments, often rewarding them for compliance. Companies that can help: Medisafe, Mango Health, AdhereTech, Ayogo, GamifyHealth, Habitica, PillPack
  • Gamified Health Assessments: Interactive assessments that use game mechanics to evaluate health metrics and/or psychological well-being in a more engaging and less stressful manner than traditional methods. Companies that can help: Akili Interactive Labs, BrainCheck, CogniFit, Thrive Therapeutic Software, Fitbit (using its sleep score feature), Qardio, Pear Therapeutics
  • Cognitive Training and Mental Health: Platforms that offer games and activities aimed at enhancing cognitive functions, reducing stress and/or managing symptoms of mental health conditions like depression and/or anxiety. Companies that can help: Lumosity, Headspace, Elevate, Happify, MindMaze, Akili Interactive Labs, Peak
  • Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games designed to assist in physical rehabilitation, making exercises more engaging and less monotonous for patients recovering from injuries and/or surgeries. Companies that can help: Reflexion Health, Neofect, Sword Health, VirtualRehab, MindMaze, Biogaming, Kaia Health
  • Medical Education and Training: Interactive simulations and games that help medical students and professionals learn complex subjects, surgical procedures and/or emergency response techniques in an engaging, risk-free environment. Companies that can help: Prodeceo, SimX, Kognito, Level Ex, BioDigital, Osmosis, Touch Surgery

These examples represent a fraction of how gamification is revolutionizing healthcare by making it more accessible, engaging and effective. As technology evolves, we can expect to see even more innovative applications in the years to come.

Future Potential Uses of Gamification in Healthcare

  • Personalized Health Quests: Tailoring gamification strategies to individual patients’ health goals, medical history and preferences. Imagine a platform that designs personalized "health quests" for patients, incorporating daily tasks, challenges and goals specific to their health condition, with real-time adjustments based on progress and feedback. Such platforms can enhance patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans, leading to better health outcomes and potentially reducing hospital readmissions.
  • VR for Pain Management: Using VR games and environments to manage pain, especially in chronic conditions and/or during procedures. VR can provide immersive distractions, reducing the patient's focus on pain through engaging virtual experiences. VR for pain management can improve patient satisfaction and comfort, decrease reliance on pain medication and differentiate the hospital as a leader in innovative patient care technologies.
  • Augmented Reality (AR) in Surgery: Implementing AR to assist surgeons during procedures by overlaying critical information, such as 3D visualizations of the patient's anatomy and/or real-time data, directly into their field of vision. This could enhance precision and safety during surgeries. AR in surgery can potentially reduce surgical errors, improve outcomes and increase the efficiency of operating rooms, positioning the hospital as a pioneer in surgical technology.
  • Gamified Telehealth Challenges: Introducing game elements into telehealth platforms to motivate patients to complete health challenges, attend virtual check-ups and maintain open communication with healthcare providers. This can increase patient engagement with telehealth services, improve chronic disease management remotely and reduce the need for in-person visits, optimizing healthcare resource allocation.
  • Social Health Networks: Creating online platforms where patients can participate in health-related challenges, share achievements and offer support to others. These networks would use gamification to foster a sense of community and competition, encouraging healthy behaviors. Social health networks can enhance patient engagement outside the clinical setting, support preventive health measures and gather patient-generated health data for insights into population health trends.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven Health Coaching: Leveraging AI to provide personalized health coaching through gamified apps, which adapt to users' behaviors and preferences over time. These virtual coaches could nudge patients towards healthier lifestyle choices with interactive and engaging methods. AI-driven health coaching can scale preventive health measures, reduce the burden on healthcare professionals and collect valuable data on patient engagement and behavior change.
  • Gamified Medical Billing: Simplifying and gamifying the medical billing process to improve patient understanding and timely payments. This could include rewards for early payments and/or understanding one's bill, making a typically stressful process more engaging and informative. This approach can increase patient satisfaction regarding the administrative aspects of care, reduce billing inquiries and improve the rate of on-time payments.

These potential applications of healthcare gamification not only aim to improve patient care and outcomes but also offer strategic advantages by enhancing efficiency, patient satisfaction and financial performance.

(Note: Please feel free to add more ideas in the comment section! This is a living document, so I will update the list accordingly. Thank you for your contributions!)

If you liked this article and would like to learn more about improving performance and resilience in healthcare, please check out the following links.

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