Tis the season for competition. A Humana press release this morning revealed the three winners of the InsertCoin Game Idea Competition which began last summer.  The goal of the competition was to establish what gamers are looking for in health games and ultimately create better health games for consumers. ...

Better Food Pyramid games afoot? When I first started healthGAMERS we were in the process of creating a new online health game based on the food pyramid.  At that time, I was researching what was out there.  My conclusion: a call for better Food Pyramid games.  Someone at the USDA must have been reading...

Following North America, health games are gaining popularity among IT professionals and public populations in Europe.  Main events are organized throughout the old continent, and complementary or challenging solutions are emerging transforming this regional market in a true valuable world market. As...

I’m always looking for the latest and greatest in health games, especially one with great characters and a thought out interface.  Look no further than MyFriendQuest which is available for download at the end of this month. Helping children recognize emotions with games. MyFriendQuest is an interactive...

Beginnings of a mobile health game movement? In my last post on mobile phone-based health games, I gave you an overview of Mindless Eating Challenge, a game by Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of their health games research initiative. ...

Mobile health games for sale? For a long time I’ve wanted to do a post all about mobile phone-based health games.  After all, visit the iPhone App store and you’re bombarded with thousands of choices.  From the complete works of Plato to real estate prices, there’s a little (or a...

Serious health games are gaining interest among the medical and scientific communities. In order to estimate this interest, I have checked in the American National Library of Medicine bibliographic database MEDLINE using the Pubmed Service search engine (world largest bibliographic life sciences and...

Junior game designer challenges the term. Each week Gamasutra features an article from their member blogs.  Once in a while a member blog will write something on serious games or health games that really hits home.  This week’s Standout Member Blog is Raymond Ortgiesen’s Blog, views from...

Despite the somewhat taboo history of HIV/AIDS, there is no doubt that the disease is continuing to be a problem in the United States and around the world. As a matter of fact, a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that Americans’ sense of urgency about HIV/AIDS has decreased significantly,...

Remember what I mentioned regarding the importance of competition for health innovation? Well the good folks over at Humana are definitely aware of this and have recently unveiled a new competition focused on healthy gaming. No strangers to the health games arena, the Humana and their Insert Coin challenge...