Gamification in Healthcare: Why Is It Gaining Steam?

When it comes to healthy habits and our overall health, it is difficult to always be alert. People often forget about doing exercise, sticking to a healthy diet, or taking vitamins. Modern software developers have already solved this problem for us and devised a new method of increasing motivation to take better care of our health 一 through gamification.

What Makes Gamification so Efficient in Healthcare?

Gamification is now being actively implemented in all fields. However, it is in healthcare that it can bring significant benefits since healthcare remains the most essential aspect of our lives, requiring constant development and support.

It is common knowledge that people quit playing sports and neglect their health precisely due to the loss of motivation. When we first start doing anything, we are always full of inspiration and excitement, so we put all of our energy and effort into achieving our goals. But when the first visible results appear, people tend to lose interest and give up.

The main objective of gamification in healthcare is to maintain users’ high levels of motivation and loyalty to finish what they started. Mobile apps with gamification elements do:

  • Track successes.
  • Reward achievements.
  • Make the whole process fun.
  • Create competition.
  • Provide a feeling of community and socialization.

How Can Healthcare Companies Benefit from Incorporating Gamification Elements into their Solutions?

Improve education programs

Video games in the learning process increase students’ concentration and involvement. According to researchers, doctors who learn new information through video games perform better than their colleagues who receive traditional education. Thus, with gamification, any company can enhance patient care, boost patients’ trust, raise staff productivity and accuracy, and reduce expenses associated with staff education.

Better surgical precision

Gamification in healthcare also helps to enhance laparoscopic surgery accuracy. Some studies showed that with video games, experts better control the motions of laparoscopic surgical tools.

Improve patient behavior

Gamification allows you to positively affect relationships with your patients. For example, many people have lost weight and improved their health using a smartphone app called SuperBetter. And a mobile app with gamification elements Packy and Marlon has proven to be effective in helping children cope with diabetes.

Enhance physical therapy

It’s common knowledge that exercise is one of the greatest methods to avoid cardiovascular disease, especially for people who live a sedentary lifestyle. Thus, gamification in the GameWheels app encourages wheelchair users to exercise by turning their wheelchair into a joystick. This solution also helps to improve patient satisfaction.

Contribute to employee good health

As many people find it challenging to develop healthy habits, gamification is frequently used in corporate wellness programs designed to make employees healthier. Gamification may be a great complement to traditional health programs since it can boost long-term engagement and, as a result, productivity.

Receive more valuable patient data

Because a gamified healthcare app pushes users to give more feedback, it becomes a great source of patient data that allows businesses to identify trends, make better products, and improve both service offerings and their provision.

Speed up the use of their tech solutions

Gamification enables users to efficiently track their journey, from booking an appointment and storing medical records to playing a game. Self-services also relieve medical staff from routine paperwork, transferring a part of the offline appointments to online, allowing them to focus on helping more people.

How to Succeed with a Gamification App?

There are some tips to follow if you want to succeed with your gamification app. Your app should include:

  • High level of gamification.
  • High-quality game mechanics.
  • Nowness in gamified features.
  • High correlation between gamified features and promised results.
  • More than just one game element.
  • No dependency or fatigue with gamification.

Want to implement gamification in your app or to develop a new app with gamification mechanisms from scratch? You need a reliable partner who will help you bring all your ideas to life. Emerline is a company with profound expertise in the development and implementation of various apps and IT solutions that now contribute to the success of many businesses around the world. Contact Emerline experts, and they will answer all your questions and help you find your own path to the technological future!

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