The Orlando Sentinel reports on the development of Burn Center by 360Ed, a local startup. The training game is designed to teach medical professionals who are not burn experts to deal with mass casualties from an event such as an explosion

The Sentinel notes that 360Ed partnered with the University of Florida College of Medicine and the Florida Department of Health on the project. 360Ed CEO Ben Noel, formerly of Electronic Arts:

September 11 awakened us to the fact that we have to prepare for these mass-casualty type of events, and the best way to prepare is modern technology, simulation and games. Instead of simulating it in a field experience, which can be very expensive, we are simulating it on a computer, which can be played over and over...

 

They said, 'If we give you a playbook, can you make like a Madden football for mass-casualty emergency response?' I said, 'Yeah, we aren't creating any new technology here; we'd just be taking content to places it hasn't been before.'

As the game begins, players are told that bombs have just exploded at a theme park:

The first phase is a race against time in which the player has to quickly assess and triage 40 victims. The second phase takes place in the intensive-care unit, where players make treatment decisions during a simulated 36-hour period. To get training certification from the American Burn Association, players must reach a certain score.

 

Burn Center isn't for the faint of heart. The game features screaming people, many of whom have gruesome burns and are covered in blood. In fact, some of the 360Ed team had a hard time looking at the real photos provided by UF to ensure the graphics in the game were realistic.

Although controversial radio host Michael Savage may believe that autism is a product of poor parenting, well-informed people know better.

Now, a Maryland firm, Vision Audio, has created EASe Off-Road, game software designed to help autistic children deal with hypersensitivity to sound.

As reported by the Bucks County Courier-Times:

Some children with the brain disorder react to sound in a hypersensitive manner, and others become defensive and appear deaf.

 

[The game uses] sound-based therapy by training the child to develop visual systems responsible for organizing balance and body awareness.

 

The game includes driving, jumping over hills, crashing into trees, and flying off cliffs. Tracking moving targets challenges a child's eye movement and encourages the child to concentrate.

The "medicinal" use of video games is growing, according to the Associated Press.

The AP details research done by Carmen Russoniello of East Carolina University, who is attempting to measure whether sickle cell anemia patients can manage pain and stress by playing video games. Russoniello tod the AP:

Ten years ago, they would have laughed me out of that place. But there's an acceptance of things. (Video games) aren't panaceas but they have their place and we need to find where that place is.... The kicker was the EEG; we found brain waves that were consistent with improved mood. That gets people's attention. They can't say anymore, 'That's nice, but how do you know?

Gail Nichols, 48, who suffers from severe depression, said she has been self-medicating with video games for years:

If I get stressed out, my service dog is there with me. I'll pull (the game) out of her pack and between her being there with me and sitting there playing the game I won't be so nervous about people around me. I would hope the medical community will add this to their bag of tricks.

GP: Children's hospitals have long recognized the value of video games in making their young patients more comfortable. Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity and the Get Well Gamers Foundation have supported such efforts for years.

CNBC will air Playing to Win at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight.

The show features a look at the video game violence issue, a trip inside EA, a segment on Games for Health and more.

If you miss it, Playing to Win will be repeated on Sunday at 9 p.m.

Hot Coffee it most definitely is not.

As reported by Joystiq, the University of Connecticut is soliciting proposals for a "safer sex video game."

According to UConn bid specs, the goal of the project is "to test the feasibility of using a PC-executable game (non-Flash) format to change the safe sex practices of an otherwise hard to reach group – urban emerging adults."

The University wants vendors to make the game "fun, motivating, and efficacious." That last one's not a dirty word, by the way.

If trials are successful - and no, GP does not know where you go to volunteer - the game will be distributed "broadly." As Joystiq notes, Europeans are already ahead of us in using game tech to teach safe sex.

Proposals from game developers are due back to UConn officials in November.