More information to beat over your doctors head to get video games for stroke rehab.
How long before the Joint Commission puts this in their guidelines?
Its only a 51 page thesis.
http://alexandria.tue.nl/extra2/afstversl/tm/Antal_2013.pdf
ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular accidents (CVAs or strokes) are one of the major causes of disability and
death worldwide. One of the common problems that surviving CVA patients have is the
inability to coordinate or move one or more limbs, usually on one side of their body,
contralateral to the affected brain areas. Rehabilitation from this kind of brain injury is an
effortful, time-intensive and at times exasperating process. While some stroke survivors
recover quickly, most stroke survivors need some form of long term stroke
rehabilitation, possibly for months or years after their stroke. Often patients find it
difficult to cope with their new condition, and depression is a common condition during
as well as after treatment.
Our research explores new ways to help motivate patients who suffered from a stroke
throughout the recovery process, and make rehabilitation more enjoyable by offering a
game-like experience. The main aim of the project is to investigate the potential of social
gaming in the context of stroke patients’ rehabilitation process and their effect on
engagement and motivation in persisting with the necessary exercise regime. In
consequence, having a higher degree of engagement in the required exercises is likely to
lead to better outcomes of the therapy process.
In order to address our research question, a social game that can be used in upper-limb
recovery by stroke patients has been developed. The application is an extension to the
CONTRAST game prototype presented in Jacobs, Timmermans, Michielsen, Plaetse, &
Markopoulos (2013) and follows principles of rehabilitation game design. A total of 15
participants from current recovering patients of Jessa Ziekenhuis (Hospital) in Herk-de-
Stad, Belgium, took part in the experiment and were asked to play the game. Two
experimental conditions were considered – virtual co-play and co-located co-play. The
design was manipulated so that participants are made to believe that they are playing the
computer, while in reality it is still a human opponent. This method is called Wizard of
Oz. As a manipulation check, social presence was evaluated for both cases. Also their
gaming experiences were extracted using specialized questionnaires.
The results show the manipulation was somewhat successful, yielding marginally
significant differences in social presence between conditions. The main findings highlight
a significant difference in Tension between the two conditions, participants reporting to
be less tense in the multiplayer condition than the single player one. Other results show
that in the multiplayer condition participants were more Challenged and felt less
Competent and experienced less Flow compared to the single player condition, although
difference were only marginally significant. There were no differences in experienced
feeling of Negative or Positive Affect and Immersion between the two conditions.
Although the evidence presented in this research is not conclusive, there is great
potential for integrating social games in rehabilitation therapy. Follow-up studies might
offer better insights on how social gaming can be optimized to help motivate patients to
carry on the rehabilitation with greater optimism and success.
Do you know what they mean by social gaming?
ReplyDeleteGames for two or more people that play against each other rather than against the computer.
Delete