Games for Health Conference Details Confirmed

The Games for Health Project has announced the final program for its Second Annual Games for Health Conference, confirming that the conference will take place September 22-23, 2005 at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in downtown Baltimore. The conference brings together health and healthcare professionals, game developers, academic researchers, and consultants to explore how videogames, related technologies, and game developers are driving new breakthroughs in health and healthcare. Highlights for this year's conference will include a presentation from Pulse!! -- a multi-million dollar federally funded project creating a next generation 3D platform for healthcare learning, a demonstration of a trauma care trainer developed in the U.K. for Britain's Ministry of Defence, the story of constructing Ben's Game, a Make-A-Wish Foundation effort that games the biological battle going on inside children fighting cancer, and a talk on Office of Naval Research-sponsored projects using game-related technologies including health therapies, and combat medic performance. Ben Sawyer, co-director of the Games for Health Project, commented: "Last year we showed the world there is exciting work being down to apply the motivational, educational, and graphical power of videogames to improving public health. This meeting gives us the opportunity to look at how far things have come in only a year. Some of the next-generation projects will be exciting in terms of their potential to change how patients and healthcare professionals practice healthcare." More information on the Games for Health Conference is currently available from its official website.