Fighting Cancer with Video Games

If you’re thinking that your business or organization can’t possibly use engagist techniques to further your cause (or sales), consider the experience of those involved in the very serious business of treating cancer patients. Adolescent patients, in particular, demonstrate an unwillingness to stick to their treatment, especially after they begin to feel better. The video game “Re-mission” seeks to keep kids engaged in their treatment by teaching them the fundamentals of how cancer drugs work. In the game, a “nanobot” with sidearms full of cancer drugs roams through the body blasting cancer cells. If she runs low on the drugs, the cancer drugs begin to return and any progress made by the player is reduced or eliminated.

Perhaps most important, scientific trials indicate that patients that play the game stick with their program better, understand the disease better and are more confident in their ability to fight it. Similar games exist to help diabetes patients, with studies pointing to as much as a 77% decline in diabetes-related emergency and urgent care visits among those who played the game.

A video game that saves lives and money? Who would have thought?

More information on the games can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/
AR2006102001328.html