GAMES FOR HEALTH INNOVATIONS CENTRE

Gamification in Healthcare

Serious games have emerged as a significant trend in healthcare due to their potential to revolutionize patient engagement, education, and therapeutic interventions. These games harness the power of interactive digital platforms to address various health-related challenges in an engaging and immersive manner. Unlike traditional methods, serious games offer a dynamic and personalized approach to healthcare, allowing users to actively participate in their treatment or learning process. Serious games can simulate real-life scenarios, enabling healthcare professionals to train and assess their skills in a risk-free environment. They have proven effective in promoting behavior change, disease management, and rehabilitation, making them invaluable tools for improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. As technology continues to advance, the integration of serious games into healthcare is poised to accelerate, ushering in a new era of innovation and empowerment in the field.

Interesting Facts!
Who we are

GAMES FOR HEALTH INNOVATIONS CENTRE - ALIVE

ALIVE is a collaboration between NTU/LKCMedicine and the National Healthcare Group (NHG). It brings together healthcare providers, academic institutions and industry partners with supporting government agencies and community resources for the scientific validation, research and implementation of healthcare serious games initiatives for better healthcare outcomes.

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Gamification
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Healthcare
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Education
Our Portofolio

Our Missions & Goals

Raise awareness on serious games

Support serious games research

Connect industry and healthcare institutions

Advance and validate healthcare solutions

Promote solving healthcare challenges and encourage community participation

PROUD WORK OF OURS

See Our Recent Projects

Serious Games Grant
Software Validation Platform
Extended Reality Digital Innovation Technologies Workgroup
Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress 2018
Co-organizer of Singapore Games Creation Competition 2018 & 2019

  • Serious Games Projects funded by ALIVE.

    From 2018-2022, a total of 16 projects were funded.


    2022


    REhabilitation of Vision in a vIrtual rEality World (RE-VIEW)
    Dr. Tan Xiu Ling, Asst. Prof. Reddy Mogali

    To evaluate the utility of VR gamification with eye-tracking in the rehabilitation of patients with homonymous hemianopia.

    AARA-DA: AI-powered avatar, Adaptive progression and Remediation Analytics for DyscalculiA
    Dr. Lim Choon Guan, Asst. Prof. Azilawati Jamaludin

    To develop a tool that would lead to statistically significant gains in cognitive and affective measures among those who are dyscalculic-at-risk (to compare to single-dimension cognitive interventions).

    Project DEFEND - Digital Evolution of Foot Education iN Diabetes
    Ms. Tiffany Chew, Prof. Konstadina Griva

    To develop a novel VR Diabetic Foot Screening Module to provide a better learning process with unlimited amount of guided practice at customized pace and level of proficiency.

    2020

    Is Gamification more Efficacious then Conventional Multiple Choice Quiz (MCQ) in a Telegram Surgical Education platform?
    Dr. Clement Chia, Asst. Prof. Loraine Tudor Car

    Investigate whether gamification is superior to conventional quizzing in terms of cognition, perceived self-efficacy and learner satisfaction. Publication

    Project ALIVE!: Bringing post-graduate Core Acute Medicine teaching alive through gameplay
    Dr. June Koh, Assoc. Prof. Koh Nien Yue

    (i) To develop a curiculum on a gamified mobile application platform based on case scenarios and allows for knowledge application and decision making that can be used as an adjunct for learning. (ii) To create a game with realistic elements for doctors

    A Novel Trainer-Trainee Model for Game-Based Rehearsal of Diabetes Management
    Dr. Rinkoo Dalan, Dr. Reddy Mogali

    To develop a simulation-based diabetes management digital game incorporating a trainer-trainee model that allows personalised rehearsal activity after taking each learner's strength and weaknesses into consideration

    Use of Gamification to Promote Medication Adherence through Patient Education
    Ms. Tan Keng Teng, Prof. Theng Yin Leng

    To explore the use of technology and gamification to educate and improve patient's understanding of their medical conditions and medications and hence be more adherent to their prescribed medications Publication

    Virtual Reality Surgical Airway Training (VSaT) in COVID-19 Pandemic
    Dr. Tay Kon Voi, Dr. Kenneth Lim

    To use Vsat as a simulation of clinical scenatio of airway obstruction to familiarise junior doctors with clinical cases, ariway anatomy, physiology, indications for surgical airway creation, stepwise approach for residents to perform procedures, common pitfalls, and handlings of complications.

    2019

    A Gamified Emotional Bias Modification Intervention for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
    Dr. Melvyn Zhang, Dr. Ranganath Vallabhajosyula

    The conventional methods or tasks challenge the motivation and engaging capabilities of children with ADHD. This study aims aimed to create a game prototype based on the DOT PROBE TASK to meet the challenges and check the efficacy of application to determine the emotional attention biases. Publication 1 Publication 2

    Interactive Conversational Game-based Therapy Program Targeting Patients with Aphasia
    Koh Sze Khee, Assoc. Prof. Konstadina Griva

    To develop a conversational-based game therapy app to bridge maximise therapeutic outcomes for strokes patients by increasing frequency of therapy (use it as an adjunct therapy tool), using culturally relevant stimuli to promote treatment saliency, targeting functional communication skills to promote community reintegration, etc.

    Antibiotic SteWARdS
    Dr. Angela Chow, Assoc. Prof. Yeo Tsin Wen

    To use serious game to address knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of individuals towards antibiotics use. Publication

    2018

    Gamification of Research methodology course for Enhanced Efficacy (GREE)
    Dr. Xie Huitung, Dr. Preman Rajalingam

    To develop a game to enhance the interest of leaners from the healthcare setting about research methodology.

    Using a gamification learning approach to improve nurses’ knowledge and skills in managing code blue situations
    Dr. Yuan Peng, Dr. Ranganath Vallabhajosyula

    A game, simulated and interactive application will be developed to impart the knowledge and skills of resuscitation management and stimulate critical and rapid decision making in the code blue process.

    Gamified M-Health Bias Modification Intervention for Substance Use Disorders
    Dr. Melvyn Zhang, Prof. Helen Smith

    To develop and evaluate the feasibility of a gamified attention bias modification intervention for individuals with highly prevalent substance use disorders. Publication 1 Publication 2 Publication 3

    Innovative Mobile-based Serious Game Application to Improve Technical and Cooperative Skills in Minimally Invasive Surgeries
    Dr. Aung Myint Oo, Dr. Ranganath Vallabhajosyula

    To develop a mobile based serious game incorporating the hidden curriculum of technical and cooperative skills required in minimally invasive surgeries, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the serious game prototype through randomized control study. Publication

    GoActive: Redesigning Rehabilitation and Integration of Health Behaviours for Chronic Pain Management
    Dr. Yang Su-Yin, Assoc. Prof. Konstadina Griva

    To design and develop a 3-dimensional game play (GoACTive) that incorporates individualised coaching, integration of self-awareness and positive health behaviours of chronic pain management; to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of GoACTive via a pilot trial comparing pain education with and without GoACTive.


  • Why the need for such a platform?

    In Singapore's dynamic healthcare landscape, the integration of advanced software solutions has become increasingly prevalent, revolutionizing patient care delivery, administrative processes, and clinical decision-making. However, amidst the rapid digitization of healthcare services, the critical need for healthcare software validation emerges as a paramount concern. Healthcare software validation serves as a vital quality assurance measure, ensuring that the software utilized in medical settings adheres to stringent regulatory standards, complies with industry best practices, and upholds the highest standards of patient safety and data integrity.

    In 2017, there were over 325,000 (https://research2guidance.com/325000-mobile-health-apps-available-in-2017/) health apps available. Each year more and more such health apps were made available online. Yet, few were really useful. The gap between the desire to learn, desire to embrace health apps for the purpose of enhancing one's health, and the reality of effective health apps is enormous. There is a need to bridge this gap by creating a pragmatic validation process where apps could be objectively assessed across the four dimensions - technically robust, clinically effective, positive user experience and cost effective.

    In most cases, the apps focused more on being user friendly and inexpensive. They are the main gist of the marketing claims. Few were clinically validated. Some may not even secure your personal tracking data.

    Here at ALIVE, we aim to solve the first hurdle - technically robust. We built a cloud based architecture that is stateless, serverless and function based. It is highly secure. We take this hurdle out of the hands of our researchers and clinicians. We leave for them to focus in building solutions that will be clinically effective. We work with the clinicians and scientists to inject serious game elements that will integrate with the lifestyle of the patients. It makes interventions fun and motivational. We enable objective assessments to be carried out. Figure 1 depicts an overall view of how we envision health apps to be placed in our ALIVE validation matrix.

    Figure 1 ALIVE validation matrix. ALIVE Validation Matrix

    How is it done? (Get technical!)

    Approach: Total Product Life-cycle (TPLC) i.e. softwares are evaluated throughout their life cycle. Some of the elements e.g. design, internal QMS can be evaluated at organisational level.

    Assess and standardise organization’s ability to perform high quality software design and testing, which is known as the ‘fast track’ pre-certification at organisational level.

    Figure 2 Total Product Life Cycle by FDA. TPLC

    For product-level certification after the issuance of organization level certification, it focuses on the demonstration of “5 principles of excellence”:

    Patient safety Product quality Clinical responsibility Data integrity Proactive culture

    Figure 3 Steps of Certifications TPLC


    ALIVE has been working closely with expert in the area on the development of the platform. As of April 2024, a White Paper has been drafted and we are ready for the next phase.

    References

    1. Mathews, S. C. et al. Digital health: a path to validation. NPJ Digit Med 2, (2019).

    2. Gordon, W. J., Landman, A., Zhang, H. & Bates, D. W. Beyond validation: getting health apps into clinical practice. npj Digital Medicine 3, 1–6 (2020).

    3. Digital Health Software Precertification (Pre-Cert) Program: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health/digital-health-software-precertification-pre-cert-program

  • Extended Reality Digital Innovation Technologies ✦XR DIT✦ Workgroup

    Since 2023, TTSH and CHI launched the VirtCHILL initiative, uniting healthcare professionals, academic institutions (e.g., NTU, SIT), and industry experts, including Meta and Vue Reality Labs, to create a living lab for validating and adopting extended reality (XR) applications in healthcare. A workgroup has been formed, of which ALIVE is a part of.


    With focuses to Care, Learn, and Transform, this workgroup aims to:

    cater for the unique and nuanced scope of XR technologies have specialized and focused review of XR projects build a community of practice for XR eventually build VirtCHILL Centre@CHI in different NHG health institutions starting from TTSH





    -More information regarding this workgroup will be updated. Stay tuned!-

  • Co-sponsor of SHBC 2018

    SHBC is one of the largest Medical Congress in Singapore. It has grown rapidly since 2002 to become one of the largest and most important Healthcare & Scientific Congress in Singapore. It is where healthcare professionals, research scientists, industry experts, and key stakeholders come together to exchanges ideas that strategies for healthcare advancement. ALIVE has co-sponsored the SHBC 2018 with Five polytechnics and ITE for a Student Internship Programme. This Programme allows diploma students, with expertise in the areas of games design/storytelling, graphics design and IT infrastructure, to co-develop serious game prototypes for the healthcare sector. Through ALIVE, healthcare professional teams from NHG and NTU Singapore provided guidance to student interns to co-develop these serious game prototypes to improve health literacy.

  • Co-organizer of SGCC 2018, 2019

    SGCC is an annual game creation competition where young talents from secondary schools compete and create their very own games. The competition allows participants to have a taste of game development in the enriching digital media environment. ALIVE co-organized SGCC 2018 and 2019 to promote serious games and grow budding interest among the younger generation. Many creative serious games were received in the competition.

Contact Us

Get In Touch With Us Now

+65 6592 3859
ALIVE@ntu.edu.sg
11 Mandalay Road, Singapore 308207