GAMIFICATION IN THE EDUCATION OF PATIENTS AND… HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS!
The term “gamification” in the health sector refers to using gaming-derived concepts, methodology and dynamics to improve clinical outcomes. The global healthcare gamification market size was $ 3,260 million in 2021 and is predicted to grow with a CAGR of 11.0% by generating a revenue of $9,040.9 million by 2031. The Market for Healthcare gamification in Europe is the fastest growing. This region is the market leader in healthcare gamification and will likely propel the market significantly higher throughout the forecast period. This is due to the region’s advanced technological and economic development.1 Those data cover the solutions for patients, but also physicians can benefit from education through gamification, which involves an innate human drive to compete and win. Moreover, gamification may motivate doctors to meet their personal challenges, making following their learning progress more exciting and entertaining.
UROLOGISTS’ GAME “PROSTATE WARRIORS” CONQUERS THE WORLD
Last year, the HealthWay company, collaborating with Bayer, proudly released a game for urologists – PROSTATE WARRIORS. This form of education through entertainment has been eagerly accepted not only in Poland and Germany but also in the Middle East. The game was implemented by the Arab Association of Urology – the biggest urological association in the Middle East, with members from all over the Arab Community.
HealthWay supplemented the educational tools for urologists with a building-block game. In the workshops, doctors choose the right blocks from the pool and arrange them on a magnetic board to create a correct algorithm identifying the treatment-eligible patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC). The workshop sets were distributed to Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and South Africa.
A KIDNEY-SAVING GAME NOW!
This year, Bayer decided to use gamification again to educate primary health physicians about the action mechanism of finerenone, the first non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist. Every day, GPs meet many patients with type 2 diabetes, which some call the epidemic of the 21st century. Diabetic nephropathy (diabetes-related kidney damage) is one of the chronic vascular complications of diabetes classified as microangiopathy. Mineralocorticoids enhance free radical formation, disrupt endothelial function and thereby contribute to the progression of diabetic nephropathy.
WE DON’T PLAY AT GAMIFICATION – WE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY
As with developing the PROSTATE WARRIORS game, we had to consider whether the game would fit the target group’s personality in terms of content and complexity. Do the content and message comply with drug advertising regulations? Is it clear to the user what data is collected during the game, who uses it and how? And finally – what are the ROI metrics?
Storytelling has always been an effective strategy to attract attention, so we decided to ‘send the doctors on a mission’. Users can listen to audio narrations while discovering an adventurous story. This inspires them to complete challenging tasks. The tasks in EXPEDITION on Mineralocorticoid Pathway are built on a drag-and-drop mechanism. They guide the players through the complexity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone pathway and let them learn how the mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) may slow the progression of chronic kidney disease. An expert’s comment is added to each task so that, in the case of a wrong answer, the doctor can be helped to understand the mechanisms leading to increased morbidity and mortality from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Every physician who completes the game correctly (it can be played several times) gets a certificate of successful participation in the “Save the Kidneys” expedition.
OUR WORK IS OUR PASSION!/WE LOVE WHAT WE DO!
EXPEDITION on Mineralocorticoid Pathway is another educational game developed by HealthWay. Previously, the TITU game for children with asthma won a platinum Hermes award. The Hermes Creative Awards is one of the world’s oldest and largest creative competitions. Each year, an international jury evaluates the creative industry’s best publications, branding collateral, websites, videos, and advertising, marketing, and communication programmes. In Poland, the game ranked number one for many months among educational games and has helped many children to learn how to use their inhaled medications correctly.
HealthWay, the Polish Member of TheBlocPartners, is a multichannel healthcare communications company based in Warsaw, Poland. Our mission – The Way for Growth – is to find the way for the growth of our clients’ products and businesses while respecting the patients’ and healthcare professionals’ right to reliable information.
1. https://www.researchdive.com/62/healthcare-gamification-market [access 05.24.2023]
