Kotaku: health care

International Game Developers Association Now Offers Healthcare

Mike Fahey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:00:00 MST

Now is a better time than any to join the International Game Developers Association, as the industry advocacy group adds eligibility for the IGDA Healthcare Program to its list of membership benefits.

Healthcare is a hot-button issue in the U.S. right now, and with the way the winds of change are blowing, you might not want to find yourself without it. Luckily the IDGA has game industry professionals covered, having negotiated a group rate for members with Association Health Programs. Any U.S. member in good standing may join come January 2010. The association's Jamil Moledina explains:

Largely through the tireless and cheerful efforts of our dynamic new Executive Director Joshua Caulfield, we are incredibly proud to announce the IGDA Healthcare Program. The IGDA HP grants you access to the IGDA group account with Association Health Programs, a national US brokerage that negotiates and presents the best available insurance offerings from leading health insurance companies. Starting in January 2010, you will be able to connect directly with an account executive who will generate a set of group-negotiated healthcare options, for you to choose from.

While the cost is still being determined, it should give those IDGA members without health insurance a fairly discounted rate, keeping them and their families healthy so they can continue making us fun things to play with.

Board Blog - IGDA Starts Healthcare Program! [IGDA]

Paralyzed Man Walks in Second Life

Owen Good — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:00:00 MDT

And happily, no one was on hand to grief it. A 41-year-old Japanese man who suffers from a progressive muscle disease that has left him almost totally paralyzed, moved his Second Life character about a virtual environment using his brain waves, reports Agence France-Presse.

The experiment is significant because the signals his brain sent to move the character came from the man imagining that he was walking. He also used a microphone to meet and converse with another Second Lifer. Then a swarm of flying penises surrounded him and the appalled researchers. OK, just kidding about that.

Researchers are studying a system that would let people select letters for a text message using the same type of brainwave controls. They surmise that, in the future, paralysis patients could use virtual worlds as a surrogate interaction with the real world — for example walking through a virtual mall and making purchases the same way one would in real life.

The research may also deliver mental health benefits as well as physical ones. Researchers hope that the activity will motivate and inspire people who are otherwise too depressed to attempt rehabilitative exercises they consider futile.

Paralysed Man Takes a Walk in Virtual World [AFP via Yahoo! News] [picture]

'Why Games Matter' Competition Open For Voting

Maggie Greene — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:30:56 MST

The Ashoka Changemaker's health care-related gaming competition is winding down, with 14 finalists having been selected by a panel of judges and voting now open to the public (through 7 November). Some of them aren't games per se, but there are several of those on the list, too (including an entry from Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games). Raise obesity awareness! Combat domestic violence! Chase away health troubles with ... a Bollywood inspired dance game? It takes all kinds, I guess. You can see what's up in the world of deadly serious games at the Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care website.

Make Game, Win Money, Change Health Care

Maggie Greene — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:30:06 MDT

A rather lofty order for a video game, but Changemakers and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are sponsoring a competition and putting up prize money ($15,000 in total) to see who can present a game that will make an impact on health or health care - that doesn't just mean newsgames or the like with varying degrees of interesting content, but even games a la Dance Dance Revolution that (surprise!) turned out to be a novel way to get couch potatoes moving.

We expect this competition to shake up conventional wisdom about what constitutes a health game, the market for such games, and the approaches one ought to take in designing great health-related games. We anticipate a wide variety of entries (e.g., existing games, research about games, conceptual game designs that are past the programming stage of development, public or private initiatives for game-based approaches to health and health care, etc.).
Some of the games will likely have been specifically and carefully designed to address health conditions. But, we also hope to discover games that were not originally designed or marketed to improve health but whose application to health and health care has been demonstrated or show significant potential.

Entries close on 27 September.

Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care [via Water Cooler Games]