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 bodies as they interact with the game… as players must arrange cascading colored tokens in the order of the colors of the rainbow.” In order to get the colors the player needs to take a picture of something that has that color on it. (Apparently, that’s where the physical activity comes in?)
“We’re excited to be the first health insurance company to offer people fun, healthy mobile games that challenge their minds and bodies while encouraging healthy behaviors,” Paul Puopolo, director of consumer innovation at Humana, stated in a release.
Humana worked in partnership with Persuasive Games, a game design shop that specializes in games for social change, instruction and persuasion.
Games aside, earlier this year, Humana launched “iPhone and Android applications that enhance a person’s ability to make health care decisions at the point of service and maximize access to Humana’s most effective tools and resources. These applications help people find urgent-care centers, learn their health care spending-account balances, and get instant access to information found on their member identification cards,” the company said.
For more, read Humana’s press release here