Wii-habilitation on the Rise

There is much hope on the horizon for these health-oriented applications and games, in-part because of conferences like Games for Health featuring Game Accessibility Day that our own Mark Barlet and The Ablegamers Foundation hosts annually. It was at this conference that doctors, therapists, and other medical professionals were introduced to new and innovate ways to use the Wii and motion controls to help their patients.

For example, companies are getting grant money to make such games to help people with conditions like Parkinson’s disease to improve their balance. One of the most promising partnerships is between U.S. National Institute of Health, Red Hill Games and the School of Nursing at the University of California San Francisco, who gave the grant, are working with Red Hill games to create a game called Rail Runner, which requires patients to stand up and sit down to operate an old-fashioned railroad hand cart. The game not only improves balance by making rehabilitation fun and patients more inclined to continue with their program.

Red Hill is creating these games with Wii technologies to specifically help people with their conditions and by having games designed for them. Rail Runner has helped people with Cerebral Palsy improve their balance and gait.

Bob Hone, creative director at Red Hill Studios told the Sun Sentinel, "Most of these patients are in their 70s and 80s, and they really love these games.  They really want something that's going to address their disease, and what's different is these games are designed specifically for them."

I know from personal experience that gaming, especially on the Wii, is a great way to allow me to exercise and do rehab at the same time. My favorite games to play are Wii Sports tennis and bowling because it allows me work on balance, precisions and taking steps in a fun way.

Because of the success of the Wii and its motion control technology, Sony and Microsoft will each be launching motion controllers, namely the Move and Kinect respectively, this fall. These new devices offer pioneers in the new and exciting games for health arena the ability to dream up new technology.

One of the reasons why doctors and therapists are so excited about these games is because they encourage the player to move, which in turn increases heart rate and burns a lot of calories.

"Even a game with the simplest motion like playing drums on Rock Band can have a gamer burning twice as many calories per hour as he or she would just sitting around, while a more vigorous game like Dance Dance Revolution can burn as many as six times the amount of calories," said John Lumpkin, Senior Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

What really excites Lumpkin and many in his field, is that today researchers are using a Wii balance board game to help stroke victims regain their balance just as effectively as an $18,000 piece of equipment.

“There is also an economic benefit it's approximately 16 per cent of gross domestic product, even in countries that spend less on health care, it's still double-digit GDPs," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Games for Health initiative that brings together game developers, health professionals and advocates like The AbleGamers Foundation.

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