Gaming enthusiasts with an eye on mHealth will be meeting in Boston this week for Games for Health 2013, a decidedly different health IT conference now in its ninth year.
Being held Wednesday through Friday at the Back Bay Events Center, the three-day conference is expected to draw at least 400 attendees and address a wide range of issues, ranging from the use of video games to tackle global health issues to technologies that help clinicians treat cognitive disorders, mental health issues and other healthcare concerns.
By all accounts, gaming is big business, with about $80 billion in revenues reported in 2012. Last year's conference drew the likes of Microsoft, Yale University and UnitedHealth, while an official from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT indicated that games are "part of a larger initiative."
Still, Ben Sawyer, who co-founded the Games for Health project in 2004, said there's "a lot of confusion" about the value of games and gaming technology in healthcare, and that's keeping many healthcare providers and payers from jumping into the mix. As a result, he said, they're hanging around on the fringes and "looking for projects they can assume," that are "targeted and meaningful."
"The market is still controlled by small organizations chasing large ideas," he said.
Games for Health co-founder Beth Bryant agreed, saying she's "a little bit shocked" that mainstream healthcare hasn't embraced it more. Everyone's talking about games and everyone seems to have something in the works, she said, but they're not embracing the market just yet.
"They're still hesitant," she said.
"People are going to have to start making some bets – and winning," Sawyer added.
What the conference is seeing now, Sawyer said, is an influx of non-traditional players and concepts – what he calls "indie game health." Entrepreneurs are designing games on their own, making them personal and emotional.
"People are just doing this on their own," he said. "They aren't sitting around and waiting for a grant to come and fall into their hands."
Those entrepreneurs, Sawyer added, are coming in with more gaming experience, and finding cheaper tools and methods to design games. They're developing games that target cancer, child abuse and bullying, even surgery, or they're taking the ubiquitous zombie theme and applying it to health and wellness.
"It starts to reflect the fact that health is a big part of our society," he said.
Sawyer expects games and gaming technology to play a significant role in the future of healthcare, once the big players learn how to bring the concept to scale. That will come, he said, when the providers and payers learn to adopt some of these smaller, independent, more personal projects to a larger audience.
Three keynote speakers have been confirmed for the conference. On Thursday, Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift VR headset, will talk about the intersection of healthcare and virtual reality. Also that day, author Naomi Alderman and developers from Six to Start will talk about how the "Zombies, Run!" game has become an international fitness craze. And on Friday, Start-Up health co-founder Steve Krein will tackle gaming and the creative destruction of the healthcare industry.
For a more detailed schedule, visit http://gamesforhealth2013.sched.org/
