Michael Mulvihill, CEO of ORCAS, announced that the company will be launching a new, clinically tested iOS app for depression self-management next month.
ORCAS, which originally stood for Oregon Center for Applied Science, was founded in 1989 as a research organization looking into ways people could use technology to improve their own health. The organization has been developing a number of...
This year marks the ninth Games For Health conference, an event which has long paid particular attention to mobile health gaming. But Ben Sawyer, the event's organizer and arguably the biggest name in health gaming, says the mobile health gaming industry is "still in pre-season."
"The software's evolving, but no one seems to be running away with anything," Sawyer said in the opening address of...
Konami might not be a familiar name in healthcare, but gamers likely recognize the Japanese company as one of the pioneers of the video game industry that successfully transitioned from jukeboxes to arcade games to home video game systems in the 1980s. And now, in partnership with UnitedHealthcare (a division of UnitedHealth Group), the company is entering the field of public health, offering...
Ben Sawyer
Motivating behavior change has long been one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in mobile health. One avenue for addressing that challenge is to take lessons from a field that doesn't suffer from any engagement problems: gaming. For the first year, the mHealth Summit 2012 featured a Games for Health pavilion, focused on companies using games and the lessons learned from...
This morning at the Connected Health Symposium, a stirring panel discussion, entitled "Game Mechanics & Psychology: Designing Health & Wellness," was a highlight. The panel featured Catherine Frederico, a registered dietician and adjunct professor at Regis College, and Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Games for Health Project.
Audience member, Sonny Vu, former chairman of Agamatrix,...
Humana, a US health insurance company with more than 10 million members, announced today that its Games for Health team had launched the first of several iPhone apps that use gaming to help people engage in healthy activities. The first game, Colorfall, is now available in the iTunes AppStore for $2.99.
According to Humana, Colorfall "offers customers an amusing way to exercise their brains and...
