Image credit: AppClinic -
Saving Lives!
AppClinic - Saving Lives!, a Serious Game developed by Filament
Games, in collaboration with Adtalem Global Education and
its Ross University School of Medicine, has won gold honors in the 2018
International Serious Play Awards competition
in the Healthcare category.
Aligned to American Heart Association
Guidelines for CPR and resuscitation procedures, the Serious Game helps players
practice basic life support skill sets by administering CPR to a patient in a
simulated emergency scenario.
Aimed at EMS, medical, nursing and allied
health students and professionals, the mobile game is available on the App
Store
Research Foundation
Dr. Eric B. Bauman, PhD, FSSH,
RN, Assistant Dean for Technology Development at Adtalem Global Education’s
Innovation Team, worked with a talented group of subject matter experts and
designers to bring this game to life. Saving
Lives! was envisioned by Ross University School of Medicine alum Dr. Michael Nemirovsky where it served
as his capstone research project during his patient safety fellowship, in which
he was mentored by both Dr. Bauman and Lisa
Buckley, PA-C from Ross University School of Medicine.
Learn more about the research foundation behind AppClinic - Saving Lives! by
reading their abstract below.Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a life saving skill and the foundation of basic life support (BLS). The skill must be mastered by a broad range of healthcare providers and first responders including police, firefighters, lifeguards, coaches, EMT’s, nurses and physicians. Of the skills tested during CPR/BLS training, effective chest compressions are considered one of the most important factors in achieving the return of spontaneous circulation. That being said, learners often achieve low scores in BLS chest compression skill demonstration. Although CPR/BLS recognition is a mandatory job requirement for many of these professions, regular deliberate practice is rarely performed, and CPR competency is poorly retained.
Game-based learning may be ideal for continuing
health professions education because it can provide a cost effective tool that
promotes anytime and anywhere learning man. A review of the available digital
mobile applications and games yielded a paucity of computer based games
available to support for BLS education that were consistent with current American
Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for proper rate of chest compression, depth
of compression and recoil.
Saving Lives! is a
tablet-based application that provides learners with just-in-time feedback in
an authentic situated game where the patient status changes based on player
performance associated with best practices in CPR. By providing on demand
practice, learners are able to practice BLS/CPR skills more frequently than
through the use of traditional manikin based continuing education. This sort of
access to formative and summative feedback through game-based learning may
improve key competencies related to best practices in CPR.
Gameplay and Game Design
In the game, players internalize the
compression rate and proper procedure for CPR, receiving contextualized,
just-in-time feedback as patient status changes based on their performance.
Players also gain experience using an automated external defibrillator (AED) to
resuscitate unresponsive patients.
Image credit: AppClinic -
Saving Lives!
In an interview earlier this year to Filament Games
Blog titled Designing Games & Saving Lives!, Matt Haselton, Game Designer at Filament Games and lead
designer on Saving Lives! explained
why CPR practice is particularly well-suited for a mobile/digital learning game
experience.
Here are the extracts:
“Conventional CPR training is labor and time
intensive - a traditional setup includes instructors, dummies, a classroom
setting. For an individual looking to be CPR certified, it’s important to stay
well-practiced, as CPR certifications have to be renewed frequently, usually on
a yearly basis. Practitioners have an easy, turnkey way to keep their
certification skills in shape before they need to be assessed.”
“The game walks you through the entire
resuscitation process step by step - you check the victim, you clear the scene,
you check their breathing, you call for help, administer AED, and so on. It
contextualizes each individual practice within a simulated emergency scenario.
Because of the limitations of a touch-based mobile device, learning outcomes
like hand positioning and depth of compression are represented through the
game’s aesthetics, rather than actually embodied by player input. That said,
the game is an incredible tool for embodying CPR rhythm, refining that internal
metronome, because getting the feel of the optimal rate of 120 BPM is a sense
you have to develop.”
“Another interesting element of the game is
that even if you deliver on 100% of the best practices for resuscitation, you
can still lose the patient - this mirrors the statistic probabilities we
encounter in real life. Naturally, the game still provides feedback on the
quality of your techniques, but sometimes a patient simply cannot be recovered,
and that’s an important learning for this practice as well.”
Saving Lives! is a core
title in the AppClinic Series, a collection of digital apps and Serious Games that enable
students and professionals in the medical, healthcare and veterinary industries
to study, develop, and practice their skills.
As an example, the AppClinic VR collection brings key medical, allied, and veterinary
content areas to life in stunning, immersive virtual reality.
Images credit: AppClinic - Airway
Clinic VR
This suite of interactive scenarios gives medical and allied
healthcare professionals a virtual environment to practice their respiratory
intervention skills. Through simulated patient interactions, basic and advanced
airway adjunct placement, medication administration, defibrillation, IV
management, and more, learners gain comprehensive lab experience with real-time
feedback to validate or correct their treatments.