You read me right. Seriously, video games may play an important role in health care, both now and in the future. And the best part of it is, it all looks surprisingly fun. Several studies have already been conducted to link gaming to fitness and health awareness, and I’m sure more are on the way. Take a look at a couple of them!

PharmExec.com published an article claiming that video games can promote awareness and healthy behavior in children and adults alike. There are custom games like Hope Labs Re-Mission, a game for teens where the player controls a microscopic robot named Roxxi who blasts away at malignant tumors in cancer patients. In this game, players also work on managing the side effects of the cancer and treatment.

Does that game not sound like a best-seller to you? Okay, what about Dance Dance Revolution? The Mayo Clinic ran a 24-week study on overweight children playing DDR and found that not only did most of them not gain weight, but their stamina, blood pressure, and overall fitness improved significantly.

Obviously, games designed to improve health care need to be fun as well as informative. Hell, there are crappy games all over the place that don’t provide even a single tidbit of useful information. But if developers manage to make a video game that can stand up to critics on its own merits, I for one will cheer all the louder if it possesses some redeeming value.

I’m not expecting games like God of Chores (well, actually, that’d be pretty cool…), but maybe something a bit more integrative and stimulating than the Reader Rabbit stuff that I grew up with. Something like a more medical-based version of Bookworm Adventures. Just a thought.

Hopefully, we’ll see more of this in the future. Because our health care system sucks right now as it is.

Source: PharmExec.com