Gamified Solutions in Healthcare - Testing Rehabilitation Games in Finland and Asia

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive summary of the Gamified Solutions in Healthcare (GSH) research project, which is a joint research project between Turku University of Applied Sciences and the University of Turku. The goal of the project is to promote exercise, social inclusiveness and enhance quality of life, aiming at developing new services and effective activity solutions for the elderly through gamification. During the research project elderly people were included in the development and testing of games so that they could be used for more than just entertainment purposes. According to all of our tests elderly enjoy playing exergames, and digital games can be an effective way to enhance the quality of life of the elderly. In the case studies it was observed that the players where motivated while playing but motivation should also be maintained throughout the gameplay. The elderly gave overall positive feedback for the idea of using digital activity games for exercising.