Health Points : Health Gamification

We're rolling on to episode 11! And joining us is Cyrus Nemati! Founder and Creative Director of Little Bat Games, Cyrus wrote, directed and programmed Vampire Therapist, a fully-voiced narrative comedy game about finding purpose when death isn’t a concern. A BAFTA-nominated game and winner of multiple other awards this year already. In this episode, we explore: Show notes: https://vampiretherapist.com/ Game download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2481020/Vampire_Therapist/

We've made it to episode 10! We’re joined by Stephen McPeake Stephen has been working in the technology industry for 25 years, spending the last 10 focusing on 'Smart Cities' solutions and citizen engagement technology, including the ReportAll app and in the last few years, founding Civic Dollars. In this episode, we explore: Show notes: https://www.civicdollars.com/ Civic Dollars Christmas Tea Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbfVRqaQc0U

Rolling on to Episode 9! We’re joined by Cosima Prahm Cosima is Director of Centre for Clinical Research at Unfallkrankenhaus Trauma Hospital Berlin and post-doc chariotey, the Medical University of Berlin. She is a clinical neuroscientist with a background of research in plastic and reconstructive surgery relating to extremity reconstruction, prosthetic training, peripheral nerves, phantom limb pain and human machine interfaces. She founded the PlayBionic working group in 2017, which has led to applications for myoelectric signal training, immersive environments for phantom pain relief and more. Winner of multiple awards, including from Games for Change. In this episode we explore: Show notes: https://playbionic.org/about-us/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30503232/ https://games.jmir.org/2017/1/e3/

We’ve arrived at Episode 8! We’re joined by Luca Contato Luca founded Rising Pixel in 2012, and since then, he and his team have created over 200 games with cumulatively millions of plays per week. In this episode we explore: Show note links: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/disability-eu-facts-figures/ https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063600 https://conference.digitaldragons.pl/speakers/luca-contato/ https://embed-project.eu/ https://www.risingpixel.com/portfolio/inquisitors-heartbeat/ https://ian-hamilton.com/blog/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHN5v3NJ9ko https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/basic/

Roll On Episode 7! We’re joined by Sam Liberty Sam is a consultant in Applied Game Design and an expert in gamification design for health. Clients include: Click Therapeutics, UNICEF, the International Red Cross, and the World Bank. Sam teaches Game Design at Northeastern University in Boston, and is the former Lead Game Designer at Sidekick Health. In this episode, we explore: Games are the secret ingredient in the behaviour change needed to influence positive health activities, positive lifestyle changes. Games are cultural and contextually relative. And thinking of global health, co-design must be integrated into serious game design for regional and local populations' cultural, linguistic, contextual and digital accessibility needs. A key importance is game design; understanding the population you're designing a game for, and the behaviour you’re aiming to create. Because pretty games and fun games, don’t necessarily result in behaviour changes or any positive changes in health.

We've made it to Episode 6! We’re joined by Lisa Franke, CEO at Maxim VR Lisa has a background in design, marketing, entrepreneurship and social impact. She studied Design in San Francisco about a decade ago and has focused on creating technology that supports a healthier future for young people. Maxim VR was created around a powerful belief: young people deserve mental health support that speaks their language: interactive, engaging, stigma-free, and delivered in the environments where they already feel comfortable. In this episode, we explore: Around three-quarters of people who develop a mental health condition develop it before the age of 18, yet the waiting time to access adolescent mental health services can be months to years. There is a huge importance in providing engaging and fun preventative therapeutics for young people to reduce the rate of poor mental health in adolescent and adult life. Considering elements such as non-verbal communication in a game, to make games accessible, while overcoming the challenges of how to make a virtual companion that is ‘alive’ and ‘responsive’ to adolescents’ players changing emotional needs, to providing a space for players to explore and better understand their personal identify and their full spectrum of emotions. That every mental health journey is unique, so every virtual adventure experience is unique, the importance of personalising the virtual companions and virtual experience in game play, to cater for every individual’s needs. https://www.maxim-vr.com/

Roll on Episode 5! We’re joined by Jamie Bankhead, CEO at Konglomerate Games! Konglomerate Games is a video games company specialising in healthcare and other serious games development. They started with the project Cape Breeze, designed to encourage children with cystic fibrosis to do their daily physiotherapy routines, and in the last few years have expanded into other areas of health care and education. In this episode, we explore: https://konglomerate.games/

Roll on Episode 4! We’re joined by Dr. Jacqui Nortje to explore her work and game development at Discovery and Vitality Health. Jacqui plunged into the world of behavioural science in 2015, where her fascination with gamification took off. What started as a spark of curiosity became a full-blown passion, leading her to pursue a PhD at Wits Business School on the Effects of goal framing in Gamification. In this episode, we explore:

We’re already at Episode 3! In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Amy Duncan to explore her work and game development at Sea Monster Impact Games Studio. Amy has a PhD in Neuropsychology and is a registered Neuropsychologist with a strong background in education and academia. She is hugely passionate about using games to drive learning and behaviour change at scale to create a positive impact in the world. In this episode, we explore: https://www.seamonster.digital/

Roll on episode 2! In this episode we’re joined by Sam Knowles to explore his work with Novartis is developing games to encourage staff to think through the many facets involved in pharmaceutical drug research, development and delivery from patient and stakeholder perspectives. Sam is the Chief Data Storyteller at Insight Agents and the author of the Using Data Better trilogy of books “Narrative by Numbers”, “How to be Insightful” and “Asking Smarter Questions”. Sam is also an Advisory Council Member for the Harvard Business Review, is Vice President of Brighton Chamber of Commerce and to finish off this list, and Sam is the host of the Podcast ‘Data Malarkey’ In this episode we explore: https://insightagents.co.uk/meet-the-agents/ https://insightagents.co.uk/data-malarkey-podcast/

We're back! Series 3 of Health Points is here. To kick off Series 3, we have an exceptional episode with Dr. Alexander Fanaroff, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, we talk through Alexander's pioneering and insightful study: The Effect of Gamification, Financial Incentives, or Both to Increase Physical Activity Among Patients at High Risk of Cardiovascular Events: The BE ACTIVE Randomised Contrlled Trial. Alexander is a medical doctor of interventional cardiology and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a specific interest in increasing physical activity in patients with cardiovascular disease, with a keen interest in the role of gamification to achieve this. In this episode, we explore: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069531 https://www.pennmedicine.org/providers/profile/alexander-fanaroff

It's the Health Points Series 2 Finale recorded at the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference, December 2023. We have a stellar lineup for our first ever in-person recording of Health Points: Jon Hymus: Managing Director of Innerva - https://www.innerva.com/ Bruce Elliott: CEO of Memory Lane Games - https://www.memorylanegames.com/ Silvia Lin: Founder of Tycho MedLink - www.tychomedlink.co.uk A brilliant discussion and debate on the role and future of health gamification. We will be back with Series 3 in Spring 2024. Keep gaming and stay healthy, Ben & Pete

We're onto the penultimate Health Points episode for Series 2, and we have a cracking episode. Joining us is Pippa Boothman, CEO at Playfinity. https://playfinity.com/ Pippa has a background studying sociology and criminology and previous roles in marketing and commercials before joining Playfinity. In this episode, we explore:

Welcome to Episode 14 of Series 2, and joining us is Bruce Elliot, Co-Founder and CEO of Memory Lane Games. Before Memory Lane Games, Bruce had a twenty-year track record of building world-class, innovative eCommerce companies. Having competed with Paypal in the online payment world to bring Kodak into the blockchain world, Bruce has led start-ups and publicly traded companies from start-up to 1 million users and $250M annual revenues. Memory Lane Games started following a conversation between the co-founders on how to support family members, and now it's delivering over 3,000 cognitive-stimulating and socialising games, with over 100k downloads that’s being played in over 130 countries. https://www.memorylanegames.com/ In this episode, we explore:

We've landed at Episode 13 of Series 2, and joining us is Wain Choi, Chief Creative Offer at Black & White. Wain worked with some of the largest brands on the planet, marketing tech giants health & wellness features and functionality. His previous roles were as Creative Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo Inc and Cheif Creative Offer for OgiIvy and Cheil Worldwide. It was while at Cheil Worldwide he was part of the team that created the advertisement for Samsung's ' Look at Me' app, an app to support autistic children. The 'Touching Autism' promotion won the Cannes 'Gold Lion Award. https://www.brandinginasia.com/samsung-autism-ad-wins-cannes-gold-lion-award/ This episode of Health Points is a curveball to our usual guests, as focuses on how to make health gamification more visible and accessible. In this episode, we explore:

And we're at Episode 12 of Series 2, and joining us is Dr. Jonny Bloomfield, CEO at Oopla. Jonny is a Behavioral Health & Performance Coach specialising in stress management, sleep, exercise & nutrition. He has a background in Sports Science, with a PhD from the University of Hull, and started his career as a Fitness Coach at Ulster Rugby. moving on to a Sports Physiologist at the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland, then taking on the role as the first Sports Scientist for England Rugby, before moving on to occupational science roles ahead of starting Oopla. In this episode, we explore: Taking international-level Rugby sports science to the front line of the health service staff The exercise motivation mechanics, of not just points for being active, but adopting a strategy to be active, to get more points, reflecting more traditional strategic board & videos games And working with different player types, to make sure everyone feels part of a community, no matter if they more of the traditional active ‘gym bunnys’, or those who are starting to discover being more active.

Rolling on to episode 11, and joining us today is Scott Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Perx Health, a chronic condition management service that supports users in developing better habits and a lifetime of better health. Scott has an academic background in behavioural economics, with real-world interest in its application to motivation and positive health behaviour. He has a background in private equity investment in consumer, industrial and technology companies before he started Perx Health. In this episode, we explore:

We’re at episode 10, and joining us is Geoffrey Kretz, co-founder and CEO of the Kwit app, a digital pocket coach based on cognitive Behaviour therapy to support people quit smoking for good, supporting more than 3 million people to date. He’s an entrepreneur, user experience guru, and development expert who’s previously worked for banks, biotech companies, and everything in between In this episode, we explore:

Series 2, Episode 9 is LIVE! Joining us for episode 9 we have Dom Raban, who is co-founder of Xploro, a unique Digital Therapeutics platform that delivers health information to young patients using augmented reality, artificial intelligence and games. Xploro aims to reduce their stress and anxiety and improve children's clinical outcomes. He is also Chair of Corporation Pop, a creative and digital agency that specialises in mobile app development and emerging technologies. In this episode, we explore: - The importance of human-centred design for Xploro that involves adolescent patients, parents & clinicians to create gamified health services that are fit-for-purpose - To test, test and test again to check design isn’t just representative of a co-design sample, but representative of the population, geography and cultures any product or service is working to support - And that it's not just the role of gamified health interventions, it’s also the adaptations of society to support lifestyle change on a grand scale. https://xploro.health/

Rolling on to episode eight we have with us Matt Omernick, who has over 20 years experience in the games industry. Matt is Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Akili Interactive, the creators of the World's first and only FDA-approved, Doctor-prescribed video game in history, EndeavorRx. Working with leading cognitive neuroscientists, they are developing the World's first truly therapeutic mobile games to treat cognitive illnesses such as ADHD, Depression, Autism, Alzheimer's, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), as well as a range of additional patient populations. https://www.endeavorrx.com/ https://www.akiliinteractive.com/ https://tinyurl.com/E8S2-link1 https://tinyurl.com/E8S2-link2 He has a background as Executive Art Director, and Creative Director at studios including DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, @Lucas Arts, and Microsoft. He has worked on over 20 games, including multiple Star Wars and Medal of Honor titles. He has also taught computer graphics at The Academy of Art University, the Art Institute of San Francisco, and Cal State, and authored the book, "Creating the Art of the Game", published in 2004. Quite in the intro indeed. Get ready for an outstanding Health Points episode on: