Precision gaming for health: Computer games as digital medicine

Health based games have significant potential as therapeutic interventions due to the inherent mechanisms associated with social and individual game play and their capacity for sensor integration, data capture analysis and patient feedback. Moreover, they are low cost and they can be deployed at the point of care across an evolving digital ecosystem. However, a robust evidence base to support their wider adoption as a clinical intervention for chronic diseases is lacking and significant methodological barriers exist for health games developers creating efficacious 'digital medicines'. Game design is complex and it must utilise validated game mechanics balanced with a creative and engaging game design. The aim of this review is therefore to outline the fundamental steps of game development for health professionals and to critically appraise the methodology for assessing health games as medical interventions. This requires (1) The adoption of clearly defined global language for health games development based on a targeted function as therapeutic agents. (2) The development of multidisciplinary teams with a broad portfolio of development and clinical skill sets. (3) The creation of health game engines specifically built to facilitate clinical game development. (4) Robust trial design and assessment of translational impact: If games are to be prescribed, their efficacy and toxicity must be based on a rigorous assessment of their use within a real world clinical environment. Trials for precision health games have specific challenges around blinding, learning curves, bias and confounding that are particularly problematic. We propose the adoption of the IDEAL-GAMES framework for game development that systematically assess and validates games through open registries. In conclusion we propose a new framework for assessing the robustness and clinical efficacy of games for health as clinical interventions in the clinical environment.