Session Information
| Title | Saving a Life through Play: How Serious Games can help Manage Chronic Health Conditions |
| Presenter(s) | Keith Brophy |
| Time | Friday, October 19, 10:30a-11:30a |
| Location | Ballroom |
| Format | Speaker |
| Description | What if a game could save your life? For children suffering from asthma, Abriiz(R) by Ideomed(R) could do exactly that.
Asthma is a chronic disease that affects nearly one in ten American children - and the epidemic is growing. The good news is that asthma can be effectively managed with a treatment plan, though adherence to that plan is a constant challenge for many children. Abriiz(R) was created with that challenge in mind. A web portal allows parents or caregivers to set medication schedules, monitor progress, define incentives and set medication alerts. The portal communicates wirelessly to the child's mobile application, where the patient receives daily reminders, logs doses, views incentive progress and engages in adherence-based gamification. At the Meaningful Play 2012 Conference, Ideomed(R) CEO Keith Brophy's discussion will focus on how serious games are now used to influence attitudes and behaviors to manage chronic health conditions. The Abriiz(R) pediatric asthma management platform will be used as the key case study in his discussion, bolstered by both thought-provoking real life anecdotes and objective field data. The gamification in Abriiz(R) is focused on driving user engagement and encouraging the user's adherence to his or her asthma treatment plan. The Abriizlings(TM) game consists of 40 Abriizling(TM) characters that grow and flourish as the user successfully logs medication doses. When the user fails to do so, the Abriizling(TM) character reverts and shrinks, encouraging the child to reengage with the game. Once the Abriizling(TM) is fully grown, the user can adopt it and add to their collection. The Abriizlings(TM) interact with the user, and each has a background story. The game was designed to quickly engage the child, allowing him to grow and adopt the first Abriizling(TM) in just three days. As the game goes on, Abriizlings(TM) require more time to become fully grown, though the maximum time is limited at one week to instill a sense of increasing challenge and accomplishment. Game design focused on preventing users from accessing adopted characters when doses aren't recorded, and restoring access when the child gets back on track. Ongoing enhancements will focus on the interaction between the parent or care partner and the child to further drive engagement. Future iterations, for example, will allow the child to share adopted Abriizlings(TM) and give parents the ability to reward the child for consecutive days of compliance with extra "food" to grow their Abriizling(TM). Behavioral psychologists, asthma educators, motivational speakers and gold-medal winning athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee form an advisory committee that helped shape the gamification of the Abriiz(R) pediatric asthma management platform. Ideomed(R) received the National Edison Award Silver Medal in 2012 for online tool innovation for Abriiz(R). Ideomed(R) CEO Keith Brophy is a seasoned entrepreneur with experience in technology, software engineering, health and life sciences and commercialization. Keith authored several books on emerging Web trends in the early days of the commercialized Internet, and is a frequent speaker and business advisor. He serves as Advisory Board Chairman of the Michigan Small Business Technology Development Center. |