It's the Health Points Series 2 Finale recorded at the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge Conference, December 2023.    We have a stellar lineup for our first ever in-person recording of Health Points: Jon Hymus: Managing Director of Innerva - https://www.innerva.com/  Bruce Elliott: CEO of Memory Lane Games - https://www.memorylanegames.com/ Silvia Lin: Founder of Tycho MedLink -  www.tychomedlink.co.uk   A brilliant discussion and debate on the role and future of health gamification.    We will be back with Series 3 in Spring 2024.    Keep gaming and stay healthy, Ben & Pete

We're onto the penultimate Health Points episode for Series 2, and we have a cracking episode. Joining us is Pippa Boothman, CEO at Playfinity.  https://playfinity.com/ Pippa has a background studying sociology and criminology and previous roles in marketing and commercials before joining Playfinity.  In this episode, we explore: Rather than focusing on the 2% of kids and adolescents who follow the competitive track for sports, instead focusing on the 98% of kids and adolescents whose main focus for sport, is fun.Using technology, not to create new sports, but to measure sports actions, adding new game mechanics to existing exercises and sportsFrom kids jumping one million times with Plyfinity, to games which are powered by the number of ball kicks, highlighting the importance of new engaging ways to motivate kids to be active, for them, and their healthy future.

Welcome to Episode 14 of Series 2, and joining us is Bruce Elliot, Co-Founder and CEO of Memory Lane Games.  Before Memory Lane Games, Bruce had a twenty-year track record of building world-class, innovative eCommerce companies. Having competed with Paypal in the online payment world to bring Kodak into the blockchain world,  Bruce has led start-ups and publicly traded companies from start-up to 1 million users and $250M annual revenues. Memory Lane Games started following a conversation between the co-founders on how to support family members, and now it's delivering over 3,000 cognitive-stimulating and socialising games, with over 100k downloads that’s being played in over 130 countries. https://www.memorylanegames.com/    In this episode, we explore: Designing ’ frustration-free’ games that includes ‘errorless learning’ that promotes longer-term engagement, social interaction, cognitive stimulation and empowered playWhich all results in more laughter, happiness, improved communication, relaxation, inter-generational connections and the potential to improve the symptoms of dementia globally.

We've landed at Episode 13 of Series 2, and joining us is Wain Choi, Chief Creative Offer at Black & White.    Wain worked with some of the largest brands on the planet, marketing tech giants health & wellness features and functionality. His previous roles were as Creative Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo Inc and Cheif Creative Offer for OgiIvy and Cheil Worldwide. It was while at Cheil Worldwide he was part of the team that created the advertisement for Samsung's ' Look at Me' app, an app to support autistic children. The 'Touching Autism' promotion won the Cannes 'Gold Lion Award.    https://www.brandinginasia.com/samsung-autism-ad-wins-cannes-gold-lion-award/   This episode of Health Points is a curveball to our usual guests, as focuses on how to make health gamification more visible and accessible. In this episode, we explore: Taking digital products for entertainment and gaming and transitioning them to therapeutic purposesMoving a cold engineering brand into a warm emotive brand, with a campaign that was so successful it won one of the most prestigious industry awardsThe need to better communicate health gamification at a greater scale to promote the role of health gamification, and transition it towards mainstream medicine and therapeutics.

And we're at Episode 12 of Series 2, and joining us is Dr. Jonny Bloomfield, CEO at Oopla. Jonny is a Behavioral Health & Performance Coach specialising in stress management, sleep, exercise & nutrition. He has a background in Sports Science, with a PhD from the University of Hull, and started his career as a Fitness Coach at Ulster Rugby. moving on to a Sports Physiologist at the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland, then taking on the role as the first Sports Scientist for England Rugby, before moving on to occupational science roles ahead of starting Oopla.   In this episode, we explore: Taking international-level Rugby sports science to the front line of the health service staff   The exercise motivation mechanics, of not just points for being active, but adopting a strategy to be active, to get more points, reflecting more traditional strategic board & videos games   And working with different player types, to make sure everyone feels part of a community, no matter if they more of the traditional active ‘gym bunnys’, or those who are starting to discover being more active.

Rolling on to episode 11, and joining us today is Scott Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Perx Health, a chronic condition management service that supports users in developing better habits and a lifetime of better health.   Scott has an academic background in behavioural economics, with real-world interest in its application to motivation and positive health behaviour. He has a background in private equity investment in consumer, industrial and technology companies before he started Perx Health.   In this episode, we explore: Taking an empirical approach with game feature identification, design and implementation, plus validating them with academic research   Creating business models for health gamification services that align to the economic incentives for health systems and health insurers, impacting their bottom line, creates new revenues.   That’s there’s no ‘silver bullet’ game mechanic. It’s the tailoring of gamification features to create personalised motivation for every user, which can lead to industry-defining engagement and retention stats

We’re at episode 10, and joining us is Geoffrey Kretz, co-founder and CEO of the Kwit app, a digital pocket coach based on cognitive Behaviour therapy to support people quit smoking for good, supporting more than 3 million people to date.   He’s an entrepreneur, user experience guru, and development expert who’s previously worked for banks, biotech companies, and everything in between   In this episode, we explore:   How lived experience and a personal motivation to stop smoking led to developing a highly successful gamified health app   The steps to the prescription of medical technology   And yet, the challenges of regulatory approval and future feature development within digital gamified health products

Series 2, Episode 9 is LIVE! Joining us for episode 9 we have Dom Raban, who is co-founder of Xploro, a unique Digital Therapeutics platform that delivers health information to young patients using augmented reality, artificial intelligence and games. Xploro aims to reduce their stress and anxiety and improve children's clinical outcomes.   He is also Chair of Corporation Pop, a creative and digital agency that specialises in mobile app development and emerging technologies.     In this episode, we explore: - The importance of human-centred design for Xploro that involves adolescent patients, parents & clinicians to create gamified health services that are fit-for-purpose - To test, test and test again to check design isn’t just representative of a co-design sample, but representative of the population, geography and cultures any product or service is working to support - And that it's not just the role of gamified health interventions, it’s also the adaptations of society to support lifestyle change on a grand scale.     https://xploro.health/

Rolling on to episode eight we have with us Matt Omernick, who has over 20 years experience in the games industry. Matt is Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Akili Interactive, the creators of the World's first and only FDA-approved, Doctor-prescribed video game in history, EndeavorRx. Working with leading cognitive neuroscientists, they are developing the World's first truly therapeutic mobile games to treat cognitive illnesses such as ADHD, Depression, Autism, Alzheimer's, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), as well as a range of additional patient populations.   https://www.endeavorrx.com/ https://www.akiliinteractive.com/ https://tinyurl.com/E8S2-link1 https://tinyurl.com/E8S2-link2 He has a background as Executive Art Director, and Creative Director at studios including DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, @Lucas Arts, and Microsoft. He has worked on over 20 games, including multiple Star Wars and Medal of Honor titles. He has also taught computer graphics at The Academy of Art University, the Art Institute of San Francisco, and Cal State, and authored the book, "Creating the Art of the Game", published in 2004.   Quite in the intro indeed. Get ready for an outstanding Health Points episode on: 'Knocking on doors', following passions (and finding people with diverse interests and passions) to create the foundations of games and healthGameplay that is so sensitive it can be used as a measurement of cognitive changeWith game score improvements that have transferable real-world benefitsThe twin Pillars of clinical data and design on the journey to the prescription of gamified digital therapeuticsAnd the importance of Defining the therapeutic elements or buckets of a game versus the ‘buckets’ that drive engagement and don’t undermine the therapeutic intervention

Series 2, Episode 7 is LIVE! Joining us is Michiel Van Eunan, who is a seasoned player in the field of gamification & game-based learning. Since running his first project (The Hunt) in 2003, he made and played over 70 different formats with thousands of people, groups, teams and companies worldwide. Ranging from serious games to escape rooms, Michiel loves to design games that use the immense power of play in the real world. He is a World Experience Organization founding member, was on the Rise Global Top 25 Gamification Guru list, and has spoken many times at Gamification Europe Conference.   In this episode, we talk through: How kicking in a hotel door to find your students playing Nintendo can be the spark to inspire a career in gamificationCreating create awareness and understanding with audio adventures for people living with visual impairmentThe ability for games to raise awareness of dangers in the workplace and minimising occupational mortality

Series 2, Episode 6 is LIVE! Joining us for episode 6 we have Amanda Philpott, who is an ex-NHS CEO and population health strategy specialist. She is the CEO and co-founder of eargym after the firsthand experience of unaddressed hearing loss in her family.   In this episode we explore the limited awareness of the importance of checking your hearing and the science of auditory training that can improve hearing capacity by 25% and how eargym is using digital technology and gamification to bridge the gap of awareness and access to self-management to improve hearing capacity.   https://www.eargym.world/

Series 2, Episode 5 is LIVE! We have Dr.  Jaime Garcia joining us who is a Senior Lecturer in Games Development at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) with a background in Software Engineering at Neuroscience Research Australia, primarily designing, developing and maintaining fall prevention video games and mobile apps for the Falls Balance Injury Research Centre.  On this episode we explore: - nostalgia to short-cut onboarding with older adults - games that can improve and maintain reaction time to reduce the risk of falls and the importance of prototyping - the art of co-design and recognising the 'subtle signs'    https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Jaime.Garcia/publications

Here is episode 4 and joining us is Niklas Johannes who has worked in roles as a researcher at the Oxford Internat Internet Institute, where he was part of the research program Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age. During his PhD, he focused on the effects of always being connected via our phones on the impact on attention and cognitive control. Niklas is currently working in a fintech start-up.   In this episode, we explore the impact of phones, social media and games on mental health, focus and attention. The relationships between digital devices in the modern world focus and attention and the psychology of play.

Rolling on to Episode 3 and joining us is Kevyn Eva from the award-winning 'Shadow's Edge'  Shadow's Edge is a mobile game for teenagers and adults to build resilience through journaling and art. Kevyn leads the product design and academic research at Shadow's Edge 'Digging Deep' project.  During Kevyn’s career, she's looked five years into the future with the Atos Scientific Community. At Microsoft, she led the 'New World of Work' initiative in Switzerland. She is consulting with the digital health start-up Dopa vision, which is working to implement games to reduce the advancing of high progression myopia. In addition to working on an app to support mums with knowledge and encouragement to make feeding their babies more fun.   https://www.shadowsedge.com/

Joining us for Episode 2 is Keith Wakeman, CEO of SuperBetter.  SuperBetter is regularly listed as the gold standard example of health & wellbeing gamification on the planet, with numerous reviews and the World Economic Forum named SuperBetter as 1 of 14 top innovators globally in youth mental health. In this episode we talk through SuperBetter's creation by Jane McGonnagal, repurposing of game playing as a framework for mental wellbeing, the role of psychology of gameplay in all aspects of life, leveraging the 'challenge mindset' we naturally take on in games applied to health & wellbeing, plus the innovation, business and pricing strategies in developing a successful gamified health solution. Buckle up. It's quite the episode!   Keith has led the development & launch of over $1 billion of new products in the health, wellness & food industries. As CEO & Co-Founder, he leads the expansion of SuperBetter to address the global mental health crisis among youth and young adults.   SuperBetter is a digital education & mental wellbeing company. They are a global leader in using the psychology of game play to empower people to overcome obstacles & achieve their goals. Over 1 million people have played SuperBetter. SuperBetter was created by world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal. https://superbetter.com/

Welcome back to Health Points! Here to kick off Series 2, we have Noah Falstein joining us. Together we explore the evolution of video games through to the foundations of health gamification. Taking health gamification to the front cover of the scientific journal Nature, and the test, fail, learn approach that pioneered the gamification frameworks we see in the industry and education today Noah has been a professional game developer since 1980 with many hit title credits and was an early hire at LucasArts, 3DO, and Dreamworks Interactive. Most recently he was Google's Chief Game Designer. His freelance design business, The Inspiracy is focused on games for health, specifically neurogaming. The Inspiracy has offered design and production consulting for. Noah also lectures and conducts seminars on game design and development, for both traditional and serious games. Noah is Executive Advisor for Akili Interactive, advising Akili on the development and design of some of their upcoming neurogaming software designed to help with a variety of neurological conditions through gameplay He has chapters published in six different game industry books, and is working on his own book about game design issues.

It’s the final episode of Series 1 of Health Points and we’ve ended with a bang. This episode was recorded at the Gamification Europe Conference including a stellar health gamification panel to discuss and debate the ethics of health gamification. The panellist include: Oliver Korn, professor for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at Offenburg University, Germany and director of the Affective & Cognitive Institute with research area on assistive technologies, emotions in and game design. He co-founded the software company KORION where he continues his work there as a strategic advisor. Author and ‘life-gamer’ Vicortia Ichizli-Bartels. Victoria is the author of 21 books, with nine of them focusing on how to turn life activities into games. She is also an instructor, coach and consultant in the area of Self-Gamifcation. Melis Abacioglu is a serial entrepreneur with three major, industry-moving startups under her belt which includes being the founder of Wellbees, an HR Tech product, specifically a corporate wellbeing platform that works to create a world where everybody reaches her potential whilst being caring to one another. Wellbees serves over 30K employees in 20 companies and 7 countries. Pete and I will be back in the autumn for Series 2 of Health Points. We’d like to thank all our guests over Series 1:

Here comes episode 19 and in this episode we explore Robert & Aske’s recent research publication on virtual reality games and vaccination behaviours. We also talk through the role of VR in communicate complex issues and creating health behaviours, novel approaches to research subject recruitment methods, and the future role of gamification in pro-social behaviours for population health.   Robert Böhm is Professor of Social and Economic Psychology at the University of Vienna in Austria and a part-time Professor of Applied Social Psychology and Behavioural Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Jeyna and studied Psychology and Intercultural Communication at Chemnitz University of Technology.   Aske Mottelson is Assistant Professor in Human-Centred Data Science at IT University of Copenhagen. He has a PhD in computer science from the University of Copenhagen where he completed his postdoc at the Department of Psychology.   https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/denmark-trial-uses-virtual-reality-game-boost-covid-vaccinations-2021-06-07/   http://robertboehm.info/ http://aske.mottelson.dk/

We’ve arrived at episode 18, joining us is Prof. Michael Hornberger, the co-creator of Sea Hero Quest, a game designed to gather data on people's navigation strategies, which is one of the first skills lost in dementia. We talk through creating games that appeal to older adult audiences, making gamification ‘proper science’ and the distinction between task gamification and casual gamification (….that will hopefully influence the performance of a task).     Michael is Professor of Dementia Research and the at the University of East Anglia and the co-creator of Sea Hero Quest. His research group’s work involves using pioneering techniques to identify the spatial or navigation issues in dementia and how these impacts on people's outdoor activities such as driving and walking safely.

Roll on Episode 17, joining us is David Wortley, Vice President of the International Society of Digital Medicine. We talk through David’s background, how he ended up working in digital health and the steps to settings up the Serious Games Institute, and perspectives on the role of gamification in health.   In addition to David role at the International Society of Medicine, he is a serial entrepreneur with a 50 years career that spans emerging technologies including telecommunications, computer, digital media and the creative industries. He was the founding director of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University and responsible for the development of the institute, as a global thought leader on the application of immersive technologies.