“Emily tells …” healthcare app combines gaming and education
The idea, to talk about a difficult medical story more easily through a game, was presented by students during the Smart Lectures in the Drechtsteden, Netherlands. This idea has become reality through the collaboration of schools, healthcare professionals, semi-government and industry. The app “Emily vertelt …” is developed in Dordrecht is now available online for free.
A full house of students during the smart lectures 2020
Smart Lectures
For the Smart Lectures 2018, an initiative of the municipality of Ridderkerk, students from the regional HAVO / VWO schools have been invited for inspiration sessions on new technologies. Students from a number of school communities in the region were motivated to think about innovations in healthcare. For this competition, they were asked to elaborate and present their ideas on this topic during a follow-up session.
The game has a deeper meaning, the character is a copy of a real person, in this case Emily.
The solution:
“Make it easy for children and their environment to learn about illness or disease by playing a game on your mobile phone.” In one sentence, that was the winning team’s pitch based on the experiences of one of the team members, Emily. She has AOS, a genetic disorder. With a small homemade demo, the team showed what kind of innovation they had in mind.
Not a one-hit wonder:
The jury praised the enthusiasm and insight of the students between gaming and communicating about a disease or condition. Partly because the concept may also be re-usable for other diseases and conditions, Emily’s team ultimately won the 2018 jury prize.
Rise to the idea:
Emily was confronted at a young age with a genetic disorder AOS. Her parents have been very open from the beginning about what Emily has and also to the immediate environment. Emily has never had to keep this a ‘secret’. Keeping this secret can cause mental problems during adulthood. Despite the openness, it is still a difficult subject to share with friends, but also with other peolple in the social environment. You first want to get the subject under control yourself instead of having to tell onthers…
Then the magic started!
As a result of winning the Smart Lectures competition, the students were allowed to give a presentation to the Board of Directors of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Dordrecht. Marcel Massing from 3D studio HIA3D was on the jury at Smart Lectures. Together with the Dordrecht-based ArtiShock Mixed Reality Productions and its partners, he decided not to leave it at an idea. They searched for the necessary financial resources and substantive capacity.
No game app without collaboration
The project was embraced by a number of parties including corporate sponsors and the Albert Schweitzer Hospital . A last big step was taken by supporting the innovation fund Smart City Dordrecht . Great was the surprise of the students involved that the game would really be realized. The serious game ‘Emily tells …’ was ultimately developed through the dedication and commitment of ArtiShock with its partners HIA3D < / a>, MediaFusion , HIA3D Platipus .
An impression of the app and its development
Content of the game app
Gaming and learning go hand in hand. Climb over obstacles and jump to a great height to collect points. However, you also need to collect words. These help you to complete a short educational text at the end of each “level”. If successful, you will have the opportunity to play the level again in “time attack” mode. The clock is ticking! Do you remember where all the words are hidden? If this also succeeds within time, you can choose other clothing. This allows you to play the next level. You can also choose which “Emily” you want to be, a young Emily or a somewhat older teenage version of Emily. The Emily in the game looks just like the real Emily who has learned to deal with AOS. Immediately after opening the app, she introduces herself.
More information
Do you want to know whether this game concept is suitable for your patient association or does it appeal to the method of information transfer for other purposes? Please contact us: +31(0)786314375 or mail to projects@artishock.com
