Highlights
The 7th Annual Games for Health Conference is gearing up! On May 18-19 join hundreds of game developers, health professionals, and leading researchers to discover, brainstorm, and debate how Serious Games can work to improve health & healthcare. The conference will be located at the Boston Hyatt Harborside.
This is the largest Games for Health to date with a great opening keynote from Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. His opening talk Positive Psychology>Positive Computing>Positive Videogames is one of over 60 talks planned for the three day event.
This year marks several changes and additions to the program:
Ludica Medica Day
The medical modeling, simulation & learning track is being transitioned to a standalone preconference day titled Ludica Medica. As a standalone event the aspiration is to expand its contributions to the larger medical modeling & simulation space and improve its coordination with the Serious Games day which includes lots of discussion about simulation and learning in other non-health sectors.
New Nutrition Track
Organizers feel the opportunity to utilize games to help improve issues related to nutrition and food is still not fully realized. They’re investing conference resources towards improving this area within the games for health field.
Better Hands On Demos & Activities
Organizers are revamping the exhibit space again to improve exhibits, expand poster presentations, and add more hands-on demonstrations. They’re especially working to grow the Exergaming & active gaming areas with the help of that side of the industry.
Games for Health Conference Structure – Zoom In
The 7th Games for Health Conference is comprised of three-days of events. The overall conference is the anchor event of other multi-event Games Beyond Entertainment Week.
The “Core” Games for Health Conference - May 18-19
Five Tracks of Content:
* Open Content Tracks
* Exergaming & Active Gaming
* Cognitive & Emotional Health
* Sensorimotor Rehab
* Nutrition & Games
* Social Games & Virtual Worlds
Preconference Events & Workshops - May 17
* Ludica Medica I : Game-based Medical Modeling, Simulation & Education
* Out & About II: Mobile Serious Games
* Enabled Play: 4th Annual Games Accessibility Day
The 7th Annual Games for Health Conference features two-days of talks, more than 400 attendees and 40 sessions provided by an international array of over 60 speakers cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care. Topics include active gaming, rehab & physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, bio-feedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education.
The three co-located pre-conference events are detailed below:
Ludica Medica I: Medical Modeling, Simulation, Learning & Training with Videogames & Videogame Technologies
In 2011, The Games for Health Conference is improving its coverage of medical modeling, simulation, training, and education with games by moving all of its relevant content into a new pre-conference event titled Ludica Medica. The conference’s playful title serves to emphasize its focus on a number of specific overlaps and specialized contributions videogames, their associated technologies, and the videogame industry can make in the larger fields of medical modeling, simulation, learning & training.
Ludica Medica is complimentary to the larger medical VR or simulation events by limiting its focus on efforts that tie-back to the field of videogames and the potential comparative advantages those ties can bring including lower costs, ease-of-use, new forms of learning, and ability to reach new and large audience.
Topics covered at Ludica Medica will feature a combination of game-specific talks, and relevant areas where games overlap with more traditional technologies in the medical learning & training fields.
Areas of user focus will include medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, medics/EMTs, lab technicians, pharmacists, and other related fields. The conference also will feature discussions about student education (from early education health programs, high-school biology, and professional degree programs) and patient education programs designed to improve their skills and knowledge.
Enabled Play: The 3rd Annual Games Accessibility Day
Making all games accessible to people with lifelong or temporary physical and/or cognitive disabilities is an important need for the videogame field in general. At the same time the ability to use games to directly help people with disabilities is an important output of the games for health field. Much of the research and development activity in the general field of games accessibility has important crossover benefits to the health field. Enabled Play is an entire event devoted to talks, networking, and demos dedicated to making all games more accessible, and helping people with disabilities play their way to better health and wellness.
Out & About: 2nd Annual Mobile Serious Games Conference
Building on the successful first-run event of last year, Out & About is the only day devoted to the opportunities for Serious Games in the mobile, handheld, and sensor-based gaming spaces. One entire track will be devoted to health related applications.
Games Beyond Entertainment Week
Games for Health is now part of an entire week of events dedicated to the utilization of games beyond personal entertainment. A series of one and two-day conferences designed to explore Serious Games and emerging market opportunities for videogames and videogame technologies Games Beyond Entertainment Week features over 10 unique events including the 7th Annual Games for Health Conference.
About Games For Health
Founded in 2004, the Games for Health Project supports community, knowledge, and business development efforts to use cutting-edge games and game technologies to improve health and health care. The Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the lead conference sponsor and a major supporter of the Games for Health Project. To date, the project has brought together researchers, medical professionals, and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health, health care, and policy.
A major effort of the Games for Health Project is the annual Games for Health Conference. The Games for Health Project is 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.