Home » Articles » Digital Insights

Gaming: Good Medicine?

According to a recent keynote address by Jane McGonigal, gaming has a huge growth potential in the pharmaceutical industry

By Katie Weiler, Managing Editor

For most children, video games play an integral part in their lives. Parents struggle with curbing the voracious gaming appetites of their kids — and maybe even their spouses, too. Some may say playing video games is addicting and a waste of time. My sons’ pediatricians would agree. Instead of elevator music while on hold, they offer a recorded message with tips such as limit the “screen time” of children to one hour a day. I was shocked when I heard that, and then questioned my parenting skills. But that would be viewed as a punishment in my home!

I didn’t feel like as much of a failure when I read an article about Jane McGonigal, a well-known game developer and author of the New York Times bestselling book, “Reality is Broken.” McGonigal recently keynoted the University of Washington’s School of Social Work’s 4th Annual Scholarship Breakfast where she said that games can help people solve the world’s biggest social problems. For the past 10 years, she has been designing alternative reality games, and she believes that gaming has a huge growth potential in the pharmaceutical industry — and could even replace medicines one day.

“If anybody needs to be scared of games, it’s definitely the pharmaceutical industry,” said McGonigal, as quoted in a recent GeekWire article. “People are working on games that work better than morphine for pain relief, games that work better than medicine for depression, games that work better for weight loss than diet pills. Being able to play a game to improve your health is really big space, absolutely. Who wouldn’t rather play a game than have side affects from medicine?”

For many in the pharma industry that may be a bit of a stretch, but she has done extensive research on the subject, which included these data points:

• 92 percent of 2-year-olds are now playing games.
• Gaming creates 10 positive emotions: joy, relief, love, surprise, pride, curiosity, excitement, awe and wonder, contentment and creativity.
• Gamers spend 80 percent of the time failing. McGonigal says that stat shows an interesting form of mental resilience that gamers are developing.
• In clinical trials, casual games are outperforming pharmaceuticals for anxiety and depression with a dose of just 30 minutes per day.
• Children who play video games are more creative.

Of course, proponents of Nintendo Wii and its gaming competitors would agree. Since the Wii came out in late 2006, there have been numerous articles about how it has become an important tool for physical, occupational and neurological rehabilitation. It even sparked its own term, “Wiihab.” Because the game brings an element of fun that traditional physical therapy doesn’t typically offer, patients look forward to doing it, while gaining benefits such as improved balance, range of motion, and motor skills, not to mention positive, competitive spirits.

Perhaps many of McGonigal’s predictions will come true, but it’s doubtful video games will ever completely take the place of pharmaceuticals. But her work points to something very compelling, in that the virtual reality of games can support and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceutical therapies in actual reality. Should pharma manufacturers be scared? Probably not; more like inspired, that is to use gaming as a tool to make drugs better.

Published in the May 2013 edition of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine

---

More From This Voice:

Gaming: Good Medicine?
05/20/2013
According to a recent keynote address by Jane McGonigal, gaming has a huge growth potential in the pharmaceutical industry

"Hanging as Long As..."
04/26/2013
Three years later, we are still waiting for the FDA to issue its social media guidance

Open-Source Your Body
03/18/2013
An 11-day contest at MIT aims to create an open-source platform where apps that track aspects of your bodily health can exchange information

Digital Insights: Pharma’s 2013 Tech Trends
01/15/2013
A recent report from Accenture highlights six technology trends that will influence Big Pharma in the years ahead.

Digital Insights: Study Tracks Social Media
11/29/2012
Academic study finds companies can use social media not only to collect consumer feedback, but also to alert FDA to drug problems and reactions.

Memories of Our Masthead: Julie Cappelletti-Lange
06/13/2012
A tribute to our dear friend and colleague, Julie Cappelletti-Lange.

Digital Insights: Social Media Dislikes Pharma?
05/23/2012
How do we measure the impact of social media? It’s a question being addressed by most drug companies, who have their own theories and formulas.

Digital Insights: Pinterest for Pharma?
04/11/2012
Does Pharma have a place on Pinterest?

Digital Insights: No Digital Marketing Guidance? We Don’t Care.
03/28/2012
Big pharma digital marketing campaigns are plowing full steam ahead, helping both consumers and patients, even without any clear guidance from FDA.

Digital Insights: Scientists & Twitter
02/06/2012
Twitter's impact on the scientific community and scientific literature citations in particular is growing at a rapid rate.

Digital Insights: Novartis Overtakes Pfizer in 2011 Good Web Buzz Rankings
01/18/2012
Zeta Interactive has published its annual end-of-year Buzz Report, recapping the most buzzworthy pharmaceutical brands’ trends and stories from 2011.

Digital Insights: Pharma's Digital Revolution. Better Late Than Never
12/14/2011
Big Pharma’s concentration on digital marketing nearly tripled in 2011 with consumers increasing reliance on technical gadgets and social media.

Digital Insights: The iPad Hits the Plant Floor
10/06/2011
Companies like Pfizer have reduced time and increased efficiency by putting Apple's most recent showstopper, the iPad, to use in manufacturing.

Digital Insights: Ten Twittiquette Tips
09/28/2011
Twitter is a social, ever-changing platform. But its manners remain the same.

Digital Insights: Pharma Tears Down Facebook Wall
08/22/2011
Facebook is going back on its pledge for full transparency and giving pharma companies the option to turn off their wall feature if pages meet specific criteria, thus hindering users from commenting publicly.

Digital Insights: Facebook Regulates Pharma
06/14/2011
Pharma companies got a rude awakening this month as Facebook plans to make it mandatory to allow for user comments.

Digital Insights: Go Green...Stay Green
05/16/2011
With all the online green manufacturing resources, there’s no excuse not to.

Digital Insights: Tradeshows and Twitter: Take It or Leave It?
04/11/2011
We’ve been tracking Twitter at recent pharma tradeshows, but most conference-goers have other things on their minds.

Digital Insights: FDA Social Media Guidance… FDA? AstraZeneca? Bueller? Anyone?
03/15/2011
FDA, where is the guidance? If you don’t issue some, Big Pharma will.

Digital Insights: Hashtags & Free Lunch
02/14/2011
A crash course in Twitter hashtags and more, so you can follow the action at Pittcon and Interphex.

Digital Insights: J&J Rivals Tiger Woods & BP in Bad Web Press
01/11/2011
Pharma Web Buzz: Johnson & Johnson rivaling Tiger Woods and BP in 2010 bad web press.

Digital Insights: Big Pharma's Websites Falling Short
12/06/2010
Where does the American public go when they have questions about their drugs? Apparently not the drug company websites.

Digital Insights: Is Your Inbox Fort Knox? Whitelist.
10/15/2010
Are you not receiving important emails? Here are some whitelisting tips for you.

Digital Insights: Roche Treads Where FDA Has Not
09/15/2010
While the Agency has not established formal guidelines for manufacturers' social media activity, Roche's own attempt serves as a model.

Digital Insights: “Presenteeism” From Afar: Is Your Vacation A Blackberry-Free Zone?
08/03/2010
Is your family vacation a blackberry-free zone?

Digital Insights: Pharma's Digital IQ: Is Your Brand Genius?
06/10/2010
L2 measures 51 pharma brands on their digital IQs...how does your brand stack-up?

Digital Insights: Pharma 3.0: Will Slow & Steady Win the Race?
05/11/2010
According to a recent Ernst & Young Report, Big Pharma, while struggling to prosper in both the Pharma 1.0 business model, and the Pharma 2.0 model has been surpassed by a "Pharma 3.0 ecosystem."

Digital Insights: Interphex 2010: We Know You're Funny. Come Make Us Laugh.
04/14/2010
Make us laugh. Win some prizes. Come visit our Interphex booth

Digital Insights: Is Apple's iPad Our Future Together?
03/08/2010
The printed page has connected writers and readers for centuries. We've connected with you for nearly a decade now, and intend to do so for decades to come. But will Apple stand in the way?

Digital Insights: The Pharma Job Search: Exhaust All Resources
02/02/2010
With the unemployment rate in pharmaceuticals and life sciences estimated at an alarming 16%, it’s best to be proactive.

Digital Insights: Sink or Swim? Beta-Testing Google Wave
01/05/2010
Thoughts on beta-testing the Google Wave? A little fishy.

Digital Insights: Social Media Marketing Goes to Washington
11/17/2009
The ins and outs of the two-day FDA hearing on pharmaceutical marketing and social media.

Digital Insights: At Last: Potential FDA Guidance on Web 2.0 & Social Media
10/08/2009
Without any clear-cut guidance, pharma companies have been struggling for years with how they will engage the drug industry on the web and via popular social media sites without violating FDA regulations.

Digital Insights: Will Pharma Ride the Google Wave?
09/03/2009
As Google gets ready to unveil the “Wave,” what will this collaborative communication platform mean for pharma professionals?

Digital Insights: Big Pharma Prefers Tweets to Blogs
07/23/2009
Just when Big Pharma started getting comfortable with blogging, they went and changed the media platform.

Digital Insights: Online Video & Bikini Girl Inspirations
06/17/2009
Former Merck employee turned viral video genius tells the world, “Don’t just get a job, do what you love.”

Digital Insights: Web 2.0 on the Trail of the Swine Flu
06/02/2009
The Google/Twitter map, and applications like it, promise to help the drug industry respond to emerging crises

Digital Insights: e-Stalking the Swine Flu
05/21/2009
The Google/Twitter map, and applications like it, promise to help the drug industry respond to emerging crises.

Late Bloomers
04/09/2009
As Gen Y's interest in social media flattens out, baby boomer participation is at an all time high. Are you listening, Dad?

Digital Insights: Miss Manners Applies to Netiquette as Well
03/03/2009
Treat all conversations like your grandmother and boss were listening, and other digital rules to live by.

Digital Insights: Social Networking: Which Sites Work, Which Don’t?
02/04/2009
A comprehensive review of how the top social networking sites can enhance your career and which may be wastes of time.

Digital Insights: Why Isn’t Pharma Friending the Web?
01/29/2009
Our industry seems reluctant to join the 2.0 party. But why?

Digital Insights: Homepage for the Holidays
12/30/2008
We’re redesigning our site to make it more useful. Please let us know which features you’d most like to see, what works or doesn’t.

Digital Insights: Exclusive Content? I Do.
10/23/2008
We’re committed to keeping you engaged

Digital Insights: You’ve Got Mail...and Your Car is Being Towed
09/15/2008
Your professional life just got a little bit easier.

Digital Insights: Video Killed the Radio Star
08/28/2008
We won’t give you fist bumps and show tunes, but we will give you quality (and yes, fun) video content

Gatorade and Ketchup Do Not a Meal Make
07/14/2008

Now I Know My ABCs, PATs, and QBDs
07/14/2008

Going Green
07/14/2008

Because This Isn’t Hogwarts…
07/14/2008

Multimedia Coverage at a Heartbeat
07/14/2008