Healthcare Gamification: A Helping Hand for Achieving Your Fitness Goals

Be it kids or adults, almost everyone enjoys playing games, especially when you get interesting rewards or points for achieving the goals or winning the game. Now just imagine—what if you were asked to play a game by your doctor every day. Interesting, right? 

We live in a digital age, where recording things with the help of an app like the daily count of footsteps, calories you have burned while exercising or number of glasses of water you drank during a day are becoming very popular. Mixing technology with the needs, creates a product. And, here’s where healthcare gamification came into picture. 

So, what exactly is gamification?

Gamification is a technology that applies game design techniques and/or game style to non-game apps to make them more interesting and interactive. This technology helps in engaging users and make the otherwise boring tasks more enjoyable and appealing.

From educational training, business, psychology, marketing, to digital health almost every sector has now applied the wonders of gamification to create fun and engaging experiences that converts users into players.

How gamification helps in healthcare apps? 

Think of an app that motivates you to run an extra 10 minutes just to beat your yesterday’s score. That motivation is nothing but gamification. In the context of digital health, gamification is generally applied in health and wellness apps that are focused on disease prevention, self-management, medical education, medication observance, and many more. The primary motive of adding gamification to these apps is to change the behavior and approach of the patients.

What is driving this sudden flurry of interest in gamification?

Currently, various devices like Fitbit, which is a corporate fitness tracker that creates common challenges and competitions for employees in an enjoyable and motivational way are very popular in the market. These apps are targeted toward tracking and rewarding diet, exercise, and general wellness goals. 

Gamified apps keeps us motivated and engaged, and helps us to bring in change. These apps are like a friend or caring parent that helps us in achieving our goals. And that is why gamified solutions are spreading like an epidemic in the healthcare sector. After successful experimentations, the health and wellness sectors are looking to get into it in a big way. The growing production of wearable devices and health & wellness apps with gamification features is clear evidence of this. 

The gamification in healthcare is mostly focused on:

Wellness and fitness apps: Wearable devices like the Jawbone UP24, Nike+Fuelband, Apple Watch and Fitbit help users to keep a track of their progress and achieve their goals.

Nutrition, weight loss, and obesity: Apps such as HealthMonthTM help users in managing nutrition and lose weight. These apps are developed to record and display health metrics, set challenges, and give rewards.

The healthcare gamification industry is now turning as one of the most lucrative business spheres due to growing application of smart technology in the healthcare space. The growing occurrence of chronic diseases all over the globe has resulted in an increased demand for the healthcare gamification, which has consequently resulted in the implementation of gamified models in many healthcare systems.

The bottom-line: Gamified apps the new face of digital healthcare

Gamification in healthcare is not just intended to make health and wellness more fun. When it comes to our health every step or decision taken should be a serious one. With the help of gamification, users all across the globe are getting excellent recovery solutions. So, gamification is now considered as a must-have in every healthcare app. Gamified apps will give out the best results and keep users engaged in the applications, which will eventually lead to better health outcomes.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.