Issues with our health and associated services

[Bogdan Motoc]

hi there,

I am new to this forum and to forums generally. I have been involved in virtual reality for the last 25+ years of professional life. Moved from defense projects (pilot training in fully immersive VR environments) to nuclear plant operator training, to online gaming to healthcare services.

The way I perceive the development of the  "eHealth" domain is as a response to an incoming concern to social/cultural changes.

We need a lifestyle change combined with a restructure of the healthcare delivery that better match the place where our specie (hominids) has arrived.

eHealth is not about technology - it is a cultural change.

Bogdan

[Brett W M Young]

Hi Bogdan,

I agree with your comment that " we need a lifestyle change.....", " ...cultural change". Working throughout multiple sectors, including public health, it becomes very clear that to make any sustainable change in our communities health, wholesale changes in behaviour and culture are mandatory.

I do disagree somewhat in relation to eHealth not being about technology, I would prefer to say that 'technology shouldnt get in the way' but that the engine that drives eHealth is indeed a technology animal. What is required is a seachange of processes and programs and some of the innovations available today make this entirely possible and practical.

My genre is Serious Game and Games for Health specialising in multimedia digital gaming technologies combined with activity and exercise driven methodologies (ExerGaming). ExerGaming is becomes widespread, with adaptions appearing regularly in Rehabilitation clinics across the globe. ExerGaming is completely reliant upon technology with the interface between the human and the machine being key to the success or failure of the process. It's a tremendously exciting and fast evolving field that will have more and more relevance and application as technology changes to suit its dictums. I encourage you to see how such genres can be directly applied to healthcare delivery as they have enormous 'real world' NOW potential.

Brett.

[Bogdan Motoc]

Hi Brett,
Thank you for your comment. My comment related to eHealth might be due to the nearly painful exercise I usually go through at the beginning of an eHealth project in not jumping into tech stuff right from the beginning.
Know what you have to do and then gather the required tools. The other way around has brought us (the IT) the 87%+ rate of failure (this is the "do whatever the tools you have allow you to do").
Otherwise, you are perfectly right.
Could you point me to your "favorite" source of information on ExerGaming ? (I am going to google it and check Wikipedia and such but a shortcut is always welcome).
Thank you,
Bogdan

Brett W M Young said:

Hi Bogdan,

I agree with your comment that " we need a lifestyle change.....", " ...cultural change". Working throughout multiple sectors, including public health, it becomes very clear that to make any sustainable change in our communities health, wholesale changes in behaviour and culture are mandatory.

I do disagree somewhat in relation to eHealth not being about technology, I would prefer to say that 'technology shouldnt get in the way' but that the engine that drives eHealth is indeed a technology animal. What is required is a seachange of processes and programs and some of the innovations available today make this entirely possible and practical.

My genre is Serious Game and Games for Health specialising in multimedia digital gaming technologies combined with activity and exercise driven methodologies (ExerGaming). ExerGaming is becomes widespread, with adaptions appearing regularly in Rehabilitation clinics across the globe. ExerGaming is completely reliant upon technology with the interface between the human and the machine being key to the success or failure of the process. It's a tremendously exciting and fast evolving field that will have more and more relevance and application as technology changes to suit its dictums. I encourage you to see how such genres can be directly applied to healthcare delivery as they have enormous 'real world' NOW potential.

Brett.

[Brett W M Young]

Our Advocacy group, TEN, released it first online media article in December 2009. TEN is attempting to be the bridge between research and implementable methods and approaches: http://exergaming.pbworks.com/THE-EXERGAME-NETWORK-%28TEN%29-PAGE
On the homepage of this wiki you'll see references and links to other groups that TEN forms the umbrella organisation. This is the best resource we know of that details the mechanics and methods of Exergaming. Another link: www.exergamingunlocked.com, is run as a funded project by the New Mexico State University and coordinated Dr. Barbara Chamberlin who is one of the key speakers at Over a Billion Dollars Can't Be Wrong: Is Exergaming Success a Victory for Serious Games? Exergaming is closely associated with Serious Games and the Serius Games Summit is bringing together the very best minds in the world to chart a path ahead beyond 2010 http://www.gdconf.com/conference/sgs.html.
Stephen Yang also has an excellent blog at: http://exergamelab.blogspot.com/ I hope these links give you some insight into this amazingly diverse and exciting new genre :)