Gamification in Healthcare Boosts Positive Health Motivation

If you track your calorie intake by logging in your daily diet or counting your daily steps, you are already being gamified. ‘Gamification in healthcare’ is defined generally as the use of game design elements in boosting positive health motivation. Its application in healthcare is much more diverse than just tracking your water and food intake. Not taking their medicines on time is a widespread problem in older patients and children. In the case of life-threatening diseases, it becomes extra important to solve this. A game where the disease is envisioned as a ‘rogue robot’ which has to be defeated using ‘pill guns’ and ‘antibiotic-bomb’ can improve the treatment adherence rates, and also increase the patients’ self-efficacy – confidence that the disease can be defeated. Gamification can also help children forget they are undergoing medical treatment, and teach them responsibility for their health. Games can be made to educate younger hemophilia, diabetics, and cancer patients about the importance of adhering to their treatment plans.