Post by leunas on Aug 22, 2006 14:56:38 GMT -5
Character management interfaces in RPGs like Oblivion could be the basis for personal health records in the next few years.
That was the view of Ben Sawyer, president of Digital Mill and serious games evangelist at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival today.
In his speech, "Games for Health," he argued that interactive entertainment is "the most powerful media form ever invented." He said that health care and gaming are coming together to offer solutions to a broad spectrum of problems including physical therapy, post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive recovery, phobia treatment and education, as well as training medical staff.
"There is a deluge of work appearing on how the brain works, while at the same time we are understanding more and more the power of games. I believe the two are meant to intersect in a grand way, perhaps in ways we have not yet appreciated."
Various games have been used as medical applications, for example, in the field of age-awareness and the treatment of combat personnel returning from recent wars.
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