Another round of serious medical games is making the news, this time out of Britain. Sara Gaines over at The Guardian writes that TruSim, a division of Blitz Games, Ltd., is in the process of developing a triage video game that assists in the training of medical personnel in deciding which patients should receive priority care following a disaster (i.e., a bomb blast).
A second game is being designed to help hospital staff deal with highly resistant infections often found in medical wards. It appears from Gaines’ coverage this game will focus as much on attitudinal tuning as procedural training. Both games are being designed for Advanced Life Saving Group, a medical education charity assisting in the training of medical personnel.
Developers quoted in the article were careful not to promise panaceas. Here is a key quote:
“It [the triage game] is not a game to be used in isolation but it does offer another way of teaching doctors to deal with major incidents,” said Bryan Tregunna, a consultant instructional designer for the developers Vega.
Medicine is a field rife with some of the best new serious games, including Re-mission which I’ve discussed here and elsewhere. Hopefully researchers can follow up all the new developments and find effective ways to measure success.
References
Gaines, S. (2007, September 17). Video game teaches medics how to treat blast victims. The Guardian. [Online.] Available: http://society.guardian.co.uk/emergencyplanning/
story/0,,2171128,00.html
Update:
Here’s more on VEGA, mentioned briefly in The Guardian.
September 19, 2007 at 4:13 pm |
Yes, as someone has noted, tongue in cheek, folks can also learn triage in the medical wing in World of Warcraft, to advance their first aid skills. Here’s a hint: treat the most severely wounded soldiers first!
JR
September 28, 2007 at 11:50 pm |
Perfect adaptation of a video game for medical training. Low cost, low risk, high educational benefit.
September 29, 2007 at 6:54 pm |
[...] wrote an interesting post today … Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
July 6, 2008 at 10:41 am |
where do you get this game at?
July 6, 2008 at 10:47 am |
@Mitchell – doesn’t look like it’s offered for download. Maybe you can get info on buying it from the contact info available on their site at http://www.trusim.com/
March 9, 2009 at 7:24 am |
Why do you need a game to find out who should be treated first? Have we lost our faculties of identifying the most needy candidate for treatment? Has human judgement become a slave of some weird power that will make it choose all the wrong people and leave the most wounded person behind?