The School of Informatics and Computing brings the rapidly growing field of interactive health, or “serious” games to the forefront with its second Midwestern Conference on Health Games scheduled for October 28 on the IUPUI campus. Registration is now open at www.midwesthealthgames.org.
The conference builds upon last fall’s inaugural event that attracted more than 100 researchers, clinicians, educators, IT professionals and interactive media experts nationwide. This year’s conference looks to spark similar collaborations, interdisciplinary learning and potential business enterprises and investments that would further benefit the health games research environment and industry at IUPUI and beyond. National organizations like the Health Games Research program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have invested millions towards grants and funding for health games research and development.
Interactive health games constitute a trans-disciplinary field that uses popular gaming consoles, the web and mobile technologies to develop applications to encourage healthy behaviors, prevent disease, improve overall care and drive down medical costs. It is a field with significant research interest and activity in the School of Informatics and Computing, which views informatics as the cross-disciplinary bridge that makes this unique combination of computing and technology with medicine and healthcare possible.
William Ferguson, Ph.D., editor of the forthcoming journal Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications will serve as keynote speaker. The conference will also feature invited speaker Alex Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Subjects to be covered at the October 28 conference will include games for smoking cessation, physical therapy, child behavioral therapy, speech impediments, asthma education and obesity prevention.
Early-bird registration is now open. Rates are $35 for professional registration and $15 for student registration until October 1. After October 1, rates increase to $50 for professionals and $20 for students.
View the full program lineup and register at www.midwesthealthgames.org.
Media Contact
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