Harvard Medical School and ENTI organise a course in Barcelona on applied games for health
From 25 to 29 April, Barcelona will host the first Serious Games for Health course by Harvard Medical School, co-organised with ENTI, the School of New Interactive Technologies attached to the UB (ENTI-UB). This is the first specialised training programme on applied games for health to be offered in Spain. It represents an expanding industry valued at more than a billion dollars with hundreds of products and prototypes that have been designed by the academic and commercial sectors. The course, taught by staff from both Harvard Medical School and ENTI, looks at specific cases of applied games in the treatment of diabetes, hypertension, nutrition, and injury rehabilitation, for example.
From 25 to 29 April, Barcelona will host the first Serious Games for Health course by Harvard Medical School, co-organised with ENTI, the School of New Interactive Technologies attached to the UB (ENTI-UB). This is the first specialised training programme on applied games for health to be offered in Spain. It represents an expanding industry valued at more than a billion dollars with hundreds of products and prototypes that have been designed by the academic and commercial sectors. The course, taught by staff from both Harvard Medical School and ENTI, looks at specific cases of applied games in the treatment of diabetes, hypertension, nutrition, and injury rehabilitation, for example.
These games are designed to help achieve better healthcare outcomes for patients, improve staff training and promote education and healthcare products. The week-long course is aimed mainly at professionals in the fields of health, sport and new technologies, as well as entrepreneurs. It will address methods of game design applied to healthcare with topics including theories of health behaviour, game design, game psychology, user-focused design, game analysis, app design, and so on. Also on the table will be implementation strategies such as game design parameters, innovative approaches, integration into the public healthcare and hospital systems, flexible management techniques, the game jam format, transmedia storytelling possibilities, and so on. Finally, the course will look at evaluation methods, system integration and sustainability. The course will provide opportunities for learning, debating, designing and understanding the impact of new technologies in healthcare.
Last year, ENTI, Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre signed an agreement to develop mobile apps in the healthcare field. The collaboration also includes teacher and student exchanges as well as the organisation of joint courses in Barcelona and Boston.