CREATING A SERIOUS GAME FOR HEALTH.

The prevalence of chronic illnesses continues to increase as does the cost of such care. Teaching self-management skills is more effective than solely providing information and teaching technical skills at improving health outcomes. Serious games for health provide an opportunity to support learning and health-related behavior change using messages and experiences in an engaging and entertaining format. We developed eSMART-HD with the intention of improving interactions between patients with chronic disorders and their health care providers. This paper describes the factors that we considered when creating eSMART-HD, a serious game for health.

Avatar-based depression self-management technology: promising approach to improve depressive symptoms among young adults.

Major depressive disorder is prevalent among American young adults and predisposes young adults to serious impairments in psychosocial functioning. Without intervention, young adults with depressive symptoms are at high risk for worsening of depressive symptoms and developing major depressive disorder. Young adults are not routinely taught effective depression self management skills to reduce depressive symptoms and preempt future illness. This study reports initial results of a randomized controlled trial among young adults (18-25 years of age) with depressive symptoms who were exposed to an avatar-based depression self-management intervention, eSMART-MH. Participants completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms at baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks follow-up. Participants who received eSMART-MH had a significant reduction in depressive symptoms over 3 months, while individuals in the attention-control condition had no change in symptoms. In this study, eSMART-MH demonstrated initial efficacy and is a promising developmentally appropriate depression self-management intervention for young adults.

Using Online Simulation of Pediatric Musculoskeletal Cases to Evaluate How Knowledge of Costs Affects Diagnostic Workup.

BACKGROUND: Rising healthcare costs have emphasized the need to teach cost-conscious care in graduate medical education. OBJECTIVE: To teach high-value care and diagnostic evaluation of pediatric musculoskeletal complaints to residents and rotating medical students through online cases. METHODS: Six online cases were developed and tested at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. Learners completed modules in one of two groups, those who saw itemized costs of diagnostic tests or those who did not. All learners completed a post-simulation survey. Measured outcomes included presumed diagnosis, cost of evaluation, tests ordered, and perceptions toward high-value care. Simulation outcomes were assessed using paired t-tests. Survey data was analyzed with Chi-squared tests. Outcomes separated by training year were analyzed using ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey test. RESULTS: Thirty-nine residents and medical students participated and were randomly assigned to complete the cases with costs (n = 19) or no costs (n = 20) displayed during workup. Overall, learners who saw costs spent less money on diagnostics ($1511.11 mean per learner versus $2311.35, p = 0.01). Arrival at the correct diagnosis was associated with lower costs in 3 of 6 cases. When compared to the no cost group, learners in the costs group reported feeling more knowledgeable about the price of diagnostic tests (p = 0.04) and were more likely to factor costs into their practice moving forward (p = 0.03). Third year or above residents demonstrated a statically significant increase in correctly diagnosed cases as opposed to medical students. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that challenge learners to integrate costs into decision-making can potentially change future practice.

Virtual reality distraction for pain control during periodontal scaling and root planing procedures.

BACKGROUND: Although pain management during periodontal treatment usually is achieved with anesthesia, alternative methods are available. The authors conducted a study to evaluate the analgesic effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) during periodontal scaling and root planing (SRP) procedures. METHODS: The authors recruited 38 patients. They used a within-patient/split-mouth design. Patients received SRP under three treatment conditions in three quadrants. The three conditions were control, watching a movie and VR. After each SRP procedure, patients responded to questions about their discomfort and/or pain by using a visual analog scale (VAS) (range, 0 to 10 in which lower numbers indicate less pain or discomfort). The authors also recorded patients' blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate (PR). Patients were asked which of the three treatment modalities they preferred. RESULTS: The mean (+/- standard deviation) VAS scores for five questions pertaining to control, movie and VR were 3.95 +/- 2.1, 2.57 +/- 1.8 and 1.76 +/- 1.4, respectively. Paired t tests revealed that VAS scores were significantly lower during VR compared with the movie (P <.001) and control (P <.001) conditions. Similarly, BP and PR were lowest during VR, followed by the movie and control conditions. Patients reported that they preferred the VR condition. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that use of immersive VR distraction may be an effective method of pain control during SRP procedures. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Practitioners can use immersive VR distraction for pain control during SRP procedures.