JMIR Serious Games

Adequate pain relief, early restoration of breathing, and rapid mobilization pose a clinical challenge in patients with blunt chest trauma. Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to achieve these 3 interrelated treatment objectives with enhanced self-efficacy and autonomy of patients and limited support by clinicians.

Cochlear implants are implanted hearing devices; instead of amplifying sounds like common hearing aids, this technology delivers preprocessed sound information directly to the hearing (ie, auditory) nerves. After surgery and the first cochlear implant activation, patients must practice interpreting the new auditory sensations, especially for language comprehension. This rehabilitation process is accompanied by hearing therapy through face-to-face training with a therapist, self-directed training, and computer-based auditory training.

Young people are particularly at risk of developing mental health problems, a challenge exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital tools such as apps and chatbots show promise in providing accessible, cost-effective, and less stigmatized ways of strengthening their mental health. However, while these interventions offer benefits, they extend mental health measures beyond traditional therapeutic settings and relationships, which raises ethical concerns due to the absence of established guidelines and regulations. This is particularly notable for technologies incorporating serious gaming elements. In addition, adolescents are in a sensitive and at times vulnerable phase, which shows great potential for the effective use of preventive and sensitizing mental health measures. Considering the lack of an integration into existing mental health structures among many young users, ethical considerations become crucial.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). is one of the common neurodevelopmental disorders in children, virtual reality (VR) has been used in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.

Pain is a leading cause of disability around the world and severely impacts quality of life for millions of Americans. Arts engagement using virtual reality and serious games represent promising non-pharmacological self-management treatment approaches to chronic pain. This study is the first randomized controlled trial to explore the impact of a web-based serious game that simulated a visit to an art museum on pain and social disconnection among individuals living with chronic pain and loneliness.

The use of serious games (SGs) in nursing education is increasing, with the COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerating their development. A key feature of SGs is their flexibility, allowing students to train at any place and time as needed. Recently, there has been a shift from developing disease-specific SGs to games focused on broader health issues. However, there has been a lack of proposals to enhance nursing interventions in home and frail care settings. The REACtion project developed a SG to improve students’ understanding and clinical reasoning in caring for home-dwelling older adults.

The aging population highlights the need to maintain both physical and psychological well-being. Frailty, a multidimensional syndrome, increases vulnerability to adverse outcomes. While physical exercise is effective, adherence among frail older adults is often low due to barriers. Motion-based video games (MBVG) may enhance motivation and engagement.

EmergenCSimTM, is a novel researcher-developed serious game (SG) with an embedded scoring and feedback tool that reproduces an obstetric operating room environment. The learner must perform general anesthesia (GA) for emergent cesarean delivery (CD) for umbilical cord prolapse. The game was developed as an alternative teaching tool because of diminishing real-world exposure of anesthesiology trainees to this clinical scenario. Traditional debriefing (facilitator-guided reflection) is considered to be integral to experiential learning but requires the participation of an instructor. The optimal debriefing methods for SGs have not been well-studied. Electronic feedback is commonly provided at the conclusion of SGs, so we aimed to compare the effectiveness of learning when an in-person debrief is added to electronic feedback compared to using electronic feedback alone.

Conventional rehabilitation approaches involve therapists simulating various occupational tasks in healthcare settings or recreating real-life situations to assess and train patients in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). As an alternative technology, immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been widely used in stroke rehabilitation for years, but limited research has compared occupational performances between virtual and real environments.

School climate and school identification are important features of the school environment and potential determinants of adolescent internet gaming disorder (IGD).

Adolescence is a critical developmental stage that is particularly vulnerable to the initiation of tobacco use. Despite the well-documented health risks associated with tobacco use, it remains prevalent among adolescents. Games for health are a promising strategy for tobacco prevention, using experiential and social learning theories to enhance engagement and improve behavior change.

Many studies have shown a direct relationship between physical activity and health. It has also been shown that the average fitness level in Western societies is lower than recommended by the World Health Organization. One tool that can be used to increase physical activity for individual people is exergaming, that is, serious games that motivate players to do physical exercises.