Gamification in Rehabilitation

Abstract

Rehabilitation is complex. It involves an ever-changing interaction of the rehabilitation patient with different clinical environments and healthcare providers. Gamification for rehabilitation goes beyond simply creating a “fun” and “exciting” application or environment in which to complete rehabilitation exercises and interventions. A delicate balance of the demands of the task and the patient's abilities must be achieved. High-cost and commercially available systems are limited in their applications to gamification for rehabilitation. Furthermore, the created game and system must be usable across treatment settings and at different phases in the recovery process. Insurance companies are also requiring more data from rehabilitation therapists and therapists have minimal time to be able to learn and use a game. Pairing low-cost devices with customized games will allow for better “fit” with each patient, provide appropriate data to therapists and insurance companies, and eventually lead to effective games for rehabilitation.