Dan Baden - Lessons Learned From the First Federal Healthcare Game Jam

Dan Baden, MD CDC/OSTLTSPeter Jenkins CDC/OADC

Leigh Willis, PhD, MPH CDC/NCHHSTP

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Objectives1. Get people with 21st century skills interested

in public health

2. Rapidly and inexpensively make demos of innovative health-education outreach tools

CDC’s Winnable Battles

http://www.cdc.gov/winnablebattles/

Why Not Have a Game Jam?

We hoped to bring together at least 100 students and professional game designers

Have them form teams…

And work with CDC and industry experts…

To envision…

Design…

And code...

Working demos of health games

Maddie Beasly, Nathan Barella, Sam Arrants, Taylor Agni, Logan Cooper, Ryan Drescher, Levoski Brown.Pulse: SPSU Game Jam 2013.

All in one 48-hour period

We then planned to give the winning team a paid, 4-week internship at CDC

Why Use Games?

58% of Americans play video games Average game player is 30 years old 45% of all game players are women Women over 18 outnumber boys age 17 or

younger (31% vs. 19%)

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

But Really, Games? Re-mission1 Fold-it2 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• Games for Health Conference• Health Games Research

White House’s Office for Science and Technology Policy’s Federal Games Guild

1. Pediatrics, Vol. 122, No. 2. August 1, 2008, pp. e305–e317.2. The Huffington Post, September 19, 2011.

Number of Attendees

Goal = 100

Number of Attendees

Goal = 100Actual = ~300

Number of Attendees

Goal = 100Actual = ~300

The same weekend that Grand Theft Auto V

came out

Largest Game Jam ever held in the US First federal Game Jam ever

2013 GGJ: http://2013.globalgamejam.org/status

CDC Health Game Jam 2013 Facts

Number of Health Game Demos Produced

Goal = 12

Number of Health Game Demos Produced

Goal = 12Actual = 29

Percentage of Game Jam Participants Expressing Interest in Public Health

Interest before Game Jam = 12%

Percentage of Game Jam Participants Expressing Interest in Public Health

Interest before Game Jam = 12%Interest after Game Jam = 50%

• Wellness 6• Nutrition 6• Food safety 3• Heart disease 3• Antibiotic resistance 2• Injury prevention (including texting) 2• Influenza 2• Healthcare-associated infections 2• HIV 2• Teen pregnancy 1

Number of Health Games Demos Developed

Kitchen Outbreak – Demo

Michelle Flamm, Matthew Harris, Jesse Serrano, Valerie Mears, Caleb Fruin.

Insights and Challenges Partners are easy to find Subject matter experts want to help Free admission is critical Recognition is more important than prize

money Furlough

Conclusions Demonstrated that a Game Jam can build

interest in public health

Demonstrated that a Game Jam can rapidly develop inexpensive demos of health games

Next Step

Host the 2014 HHS Health Game Jam

For more information, please contact CDC’s Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support

4770 Buford Highway NE, Mailstop E-70, Atlanta, GA 30341Telephone: 1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636)/TTY: 1-888-232-6348E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth

The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support

Questions?

Dan Baden, [email protected]

404-498-0339