Games for Health Conference Opens Tomorrow

May 7, 2008 -
More than 300 people will attend the Games For Health Conference. The event opens tomorrow in Baltimore.

From the GFH press release:
The conference will explore the intersection of next-generation game technologies and health issues... attendees will participate in over 60 sessions provided by an international array of 75 speakers, cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care.

Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education.

Presenters include Dr. Richard Satava; Starlight Foundation; HopeLab; Realtime Associates; Virtual Heroes; XRtainment Zone; Archimage; Dr. Mark Baldwin of MindHabits; Electric Owl Studios; Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy; and Games for Health
co-founder Ben Sawyer.

The Games for Health Project was founded in 2004 and supports community, knowledge and business development efforts to employ game tech in order to improve health and health care. The conference press release describes the Games for Health Project as:
...produced by the Serious Games Initiative, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort that applies cutting-edge games and game technologies to a range of public and private policy, leadership and management issues...

As a kickoff to the GFH Conference, a special news briefing for bloggers will be held at 1PM Eastern on Thursday:
The latest "gaming for health" trends -- including "exergaming," health elements in popular commercial games (e.g., a "disease" being unleashed inadvertently on the population in "World of Warcraft") and sophisticated, new videogames used to train emergency medical personnel -- will be outlined during a live, two-way phone-based blogger/online news event...

The blogger news event will feature Ben Sawyer, Games for Health Project co-founder and Chinwe Onyekere, program officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio.

Comments

Submitted by TheBird (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 07:18.
ten bucks says that wii fit will be there

Submitted by Games for Health Conference Opens Tomorrow (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 07:25.
[...] wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMore than 300 people will attend the Games For Health Conference. The event opens tomorrow in Baltimore. From the GFH press release: The conference will explore the intersection of next-generation game technologies and health issues… attendees will participate in over 60 sessions provided by an international array of 75 speakers, cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care. Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education. [...]

Submitted by jesse (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 07:46.
I would like to know how the brain works in stressful gaming moments.

Submitted by koku (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 08:05.
biofeedback, eh? i wonder how far it has come...

Submitted by BB (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 11:15.
I remember seeing an exercise game, about 9 years ago. It was essentially an exercise bike attached to a monitor with 2 old-school joy-sticks. It was a tank game, and the way you moved was by pedalling.

After I got the hang of it (took 2 games of constant dying to get the hang of it), I was able to survive for about 15 minutes . . . didn't even notice my legs had turned to jello in the process.

They should make an effort to bring those types of games into the fold: maybe have a full-body work-out machine, like a mech-suit. Kind of like the one in the original Alien movie, but perhaps the actual game part of it would be like a "Gundam" type premise.

Its so easy to come up with ideas for "exergaming", surprised it never really took off. I look forward to seeing more of those kinds of things: it has the potential to really help society.

Submitted by kurisu7885 (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 11:31.
@BB

Agreed. Logic would indicate that to get kids to excercize, make it fun instead of a chore.

Submitted by Ben Sawyer (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 15:12.
First post owes me 10 Bucks. Sadly they are really focused on next weeks launch. It's here only in spirit...

Submitted by StealthKnight (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 15:46.
i have never herd of this before and it sounds interesting. Games like Wii fit and games that have an active use of the Wiimote are good games to promote health. Also dancing game are good for people's heal;th too.

Submitted by Haruko (not verified) on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 03:24.
jesse, there are findings from a Finish (IIRC) study (which you can find on the GP archives) that showed that gamers felt 'relieved' after dying while playing an FPS. So I assume, that while the body may display some of the stress symptoms during 'stressful' situations in gaming, once the stress is taken away I presume it releases endorphins or some other similar neurochemical.

Submitted by getwellgamers (not verified) on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 12:55.
I spoke at last year's GFH and thought it was a great experience. You'd be amazed at the kinds of far-reaching applications gaming has in the healthcare industry.

Wish I coulda been there this year, Ben, but I'm three weeks out from Graduation and just don't have the time... :(
 
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