Games for Health Game Jams – fast and social development projects for health promotion

• Main Authors: Tiina Arpola, Arto Holopainen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Finnish Social and Health Informatics Association 2014-11-01
• Series: Finnish Journal of eHealth and eWelfare
• Subjects: Telemedicine; video games; health promotion; biomedical technology; social participation
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/finjehew/article/view/48215

Games for Health is a new, emerging field that promotes well-being, health and functional capacity. These games have desired health outcomes and are used to encourage citizens to take responsibility for their own self-care. There is a huge amount of applications, technology and games that can be used as such or tailored to inspire and motivate different user groups to achieve health benefits. With its pioneering role, Kuopio Innovation Ltd is leading Games for Health Finland and bringing together a unique combination of expertise, innovation and cross-cutting know-how for the benefit of people’s well-being. Finland is one of the eHealth pioneers in the world with a long history of digitised healthcare information [1]. Health technology has been a great success story for Finland. Products designed and manufactured in Finland are helping doctors all over the world to treat and save the lives of patients [2]. Finland also has one of the most active and rapidly expanding game industries in the world [3]. What could be the result when the best of both worlds, health technology and games, are combined in Games for Health? Games for Health Game Jams bring together game designers, programmers, sound designers, graphic artists, health and wellness experts, students, professionals, complete beginners and people simply interested in the topic. During Game Jams, they are all working in teams to create games, prototypes or concepts.