Clinical Playground founding and managing member EricB. Bauman will be heading to Boston for the 7th annual Games for Health Conference. This year’s Games for Health Conference also comprises multiple co-sponsored pre-conference events including Ludica Medica I: Medical Modeling, Simulation, Learning & Training with Videogames & Videogame Technologies. This event’s playful title emphasizes its focus on a number of contributions that videogames, and their associated technologies make to the fields ofmedical modeling, simulation, and clinical learning. Bauman will be giving a talk on contemporary theories that have been specially purposed for game-based and virtual learning environments. Jeff Taekman of the Duke University Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center will also be presenting during this pre-conference event, as will Parvati Dev from Innovation in Learning Inc.
Other pre-conference tracks include Enabled Play which will include discussions and demonstrations about the importance of game accessibility for people with lifelong or temporary physical and/or cognitive disabilities. While this topic is important for the videogame field in general, the ability to use games to directly help people with disabilities is an important facet and opportunity for game designers, clinicians and educators. In addition, the pre-conference offerings will also include the 2nd Annual Out and About Serious Games Conference and event devoted to opportunities for serious games in mobile, handheld, and sensor-based gaming spaces. One entire track will be devoted to health related applications.