A visitor plays the “Halo Wars” video game during the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles on July 15, 2008. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
- Developer Digital and medical device expert Ryan Douglas are joining hands to develop therapeutic video games.
- Research has shown that such game-based tools have value.
- Douglas says games are not an alternative to therapy but an “additional layer”.
Mike Wilson, the founder of Developer Digital, has decided to join hands with medical device expert Ryan Douglas to found a video game company that will invent games with the capacity to treat health conditions, The Verge reported.
The founders say that the company will scrutinise existing games from other companies as well to see which of them possess therapeutic value.
Research has shown that such game-based tools have the power to help people with depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“There was an amazing amount of science that had already been done,” Douglas says. “We started to recognise exactly how therapeutic these games already were.”
Developers at DeepWell Digital Therapeutics will make sure that they focus on developing engaging games first and then see how they can help improve health conditions. According to Douglas “The fun is really the most therapeutic thing.”
In 2020, the first prescription video game was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This industry received a boost particularly during COVID-19 and many digital therapeutics were approved.
However, digital therapeutics do face the challenge of board evaluation.
Douglas has clarified that games are not alternative for therapy ot therapists but just an “additional layer”.
Source: https://www.geo.tv/latest/405352-can-video-games-be-therapeutic
