Studies have shown that exercise video games, or exergames, can benefit elderly people who sometimes have trouble getting enough daily physical activity. But few studies have dealt with the question of how to get older people to engage with video games in the first place.
"I can give you a stationary bike, but if you don't bike it, I doubt that you will get any benefits from it," said Annerieke...
Ayogo's Diabestes app for college students.
Health gaming company Ayogo's CEO Michael Fergusson hinted at this week's Games for Health event in Boston that the company is working on a new game for a major pharmaceutical company, although he wasn't able to reveal any details.
"I sure would like to show you this game but I didn't get clearance to show it. We're working with one of the five largest...
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...
Mango Health, a Rock Health startup focused on using gamification principles to tackle medication adherence, launched its titular app after months of beta testing, a 16-week pilot, and not a small amount of hype. The company has raised $3 million so far.
Medication adherence is considered to be a $290 billion dollar per year problem, and it's one that a number of mobile apps and connected devices...
Rewards badges from Zamzee
The Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS is working on a new texting initiative, based on the successful public health texting initiative Text4Baby, called TXT4Tots. The department is soliciting via the Federal Registry for ways to distribute their library of text messages designed to promote wellness, nutrition and exercise for parents of children under...
This week a new San Francisco-based startup, Mango Health, which is developing a medication adherence app with social gaming elements, announced that it had scooped up $1.45 million in venture funding. Investors include Floodgate Fund, First Round Capital, Steve Anderson with Baseline Ventures, Zynga co-founder and CEO Mark Pincus and Square COO Keith Rabois, according to GigaOM.
A handful of...
Health games have the difficult task ahead of them to be fun, yet taken seriously by physicians, according to a panel held at the mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. last week. The panel, "The Evolution of Gaming and its Effect on Prevention and Wellness," included Dr Ravi Komatireddy (West Wireless Health Institute), Iana Simeonov (University of California, San Francisco), Debra Lieberman (...
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,...
The potential of mobile healthcare has been well documented, but the growth may be coming from some unexpected quarters.
It's not only highly industrialized countries that are feeling the effects of aging populations and chronic diseases and it's not just sick people who are looking to mobility to improve health conditions, according to a newly published GigaOM Pro report, "Future of Mobile...
It should be clear to anyone who has followed the mobile health space these last few years, that Apple has created many of the go-to devices for health and medical applications. This week, news comes that ex-Apple CEO John Sculley seems to be paying even more attention to mobile health than his old colleagues in Cupertino.
"I've been in high-tech now almost 30 years and I watched the healthcare...
