Announced last week, Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications (G4H) is a new peer-reviewed journal investigating research into the field of games for health. Games for health as a field has largely been focused around industry events such as the Games for Health Conference–which recently celebrated its seventh year–and the serious games community. The new academic journal breaks new ground as the first peer-reviewed publication to address this emerging, widely-recognized, and increasingly adopted area of healthcare, and support the existing community with solid research.
There is an ongoing and often heated debate on where exactly the line between serious games and gamification is. Games for health, whether designed as a game environment or bringing game mechanics and aesthetics into the real world both have the inherent real world impact of making players more fit and healthy. The journal will support both initiatives by uncovering the causes and effects of using these projects in health care.
“This research journal… will serve our research field and its related academic disciplines in many valuable ways,” according to Debra Lieberman, PhD, Director of the Health Games Research national program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “The Journal will be a starting point for anyone interested in the research and design of health games that integrate well-tested, evidence-based behavioral health strategies to help improve health behaviors and to support the delivery of care.”
There has been an explosion of health related gamification campaigns for health within the past few moths. Keas, Zamzee, and NextJump have developed innovative ways to get individuals, teams, and communities up and playing towards becoming more healthy. The first issues of the Games for Health journal will be released this fall and will help support these and other projects with key research.
Gamification Co will be hosting it’s second Gamification Summit in New York on September 15-16. Join keynotes from Gilt Groupe CEO Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and 42 Entertainment’s founder, Susan Bonds, to learn how the new science of engagement is rewriting the rules of product design. For Gamification Blog readers, use discount code GCOBLOG for 25% off at http://gsummit.com/register. We look forward to seeing you there!
How can one get access to the journal. Working with gamification of process improvement in medical device software
The journal will be available this fall by publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. I hope to post it when it is released.