When we were all playing Mortal Kombat back in the early 90’s, hoping our parents wouldn’t see the spouts of blood oozing around who knew that we’d be helping the advancement of medicine. Although this might be a slight exaggeration, it isn’t a complete lie. As the technology for video games advances, so does the applications in which they are being used for.

The largest commercial success for evidence can be found in active games such as Dance Dance Revolution, and Wii Fit. While they aren’t directly involved in medicine, they are providing people with ways to stay physically fit. Try and do a hour worth of activity of Wii Fit and tell me if you don’t feel the burn.

While Wii Fit might be great for the body, games are actually being used in the ‘field of medicine’. Most of the different games being used are in the field of psychology. The greatest example is how virtual reality games are being used to help soldiers deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This article by Defense-Update.com has the full details about the program, but I’ll try and summarize. Soldiers who come home suffering from PTSD will be exposed to a virtual environment of the setting they just left. For most this setting is the Iraq war; and the game representing it is called “Virtual Iraq”. The soldiers are exposed to virtual sights and sounds that were typically found in combat; the game engine is based of the video game ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’. As the soldiers are exposed to these experiences, their memory of the actual live memories become more tolerable. Along with Virtual Iraq, virtual reality has proven effective for Vietnam vets, 9/11 survivors, and amputee patients.

Trauma isn’t the only thing video games are being used to treat. People who suffer from migraines might end up using virtual reality for comfort. In a study, patients who suffered from migraines had sensors attached to their scalp. These sensors are used to navigate a virtual ship by way of brain waves. The research has proved to be turning out positive, but researchers are still trying to devise an answer as to why it works.

Games aren’t just being used to help treat patients, but to help train the doctors as well. Some virtual reality settings are being used to help doctors prepare for the chaotic situations that such places as the ER, and large scale natural disasters can have. Also research has shown that doctors who actively engage in video games are a lot of times a third less likely to make mistakes during laparoscopic surgery simulations.

So, all the times our parents told us playing video games wouldn’t help anything turned out to be quite false. In fact if research keeps going on pace as is, you could see video games pop up to treat all kinds of different problems. From physical rehabilitation all the way to serious psychological disorders. So just remember kids, keep slamming those buttons and moving the analog sticks because there’s no telling where it could lead you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 am and is filed under Future Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.