Switching medical education from the Traditional methods of education has gradually paced in the last decade using the available technology and data. The different methods were sought with better-improved results on paper, but out of those there is a fascinating and dominating method is the Gamification
Gaming and reading altogether change the perspective of brain response
Gamification
Framing and presenting the educational content that needs to be observed, graded, processed, associated, memorized, remembered, recalled, and applied to critical life situations to obtain better results by tricking the brain's reward center is what gamification of education fundamentally focuses on.
In order to do so, the usage of already employed cognitive principles that already employed in the existing gaming environment is certain. The traditional game achieves dopamine release by providing rewards within the game by means of points, coins, ranks, even costumes for the gaming characters, and so on.
The gamification of education also uses the same principles that are already established in the gaming world. When it comes to the impact it creates on individuals in the educational aspect the results are promising.
Gamification in Medical Education/ Training
Medical education is altogether a different field as the real-life impact of education deals with the life of people. There are various factors that need to be accounted for before switching traditional educational methods to gamification using technology and data. We are discussing only the skill sets that need to be obtained by any Health-Tech peers in the field.
Subject
Choose a subject of interest. Preferably on one's expertise
After finalizing the subject first choose a specific area that the game needs to focus on, For Example:
In the subject of Immunology, let's start with four stages of Immune response and later move on to Auto-Immune diseases
Data
The data that will be used to design the game should be ultra-precise and no compromise on reliability should be made.
Validation of the data needs to be done
Who creates the data for the app/game?
User DATA collection required? Will it be used in the future?
REGULATIONS and COMPLIANCE
Such as GDPR, EU, and specific country DATA Policies
Assessment of the source images, videos, animations, data, and game entirely with the help from a Health care professional viewpoint or assistance from the Field pioneer
Ethical aspects of the medical data such as De-identification, Consent, and whatever the ethical committee of certain Institutions, labs, and Hospital demands on the usage of data should be taken care
Planning
PURPOSE of the app/game:- For research or commercial purposes
App or a Game
Geographical location:- Available worldwide or specific area restriction
The type of apps/games
A few examples are:
The game will be having questions and answers like quizzes and trivia
The game will be having images and videos followed by question and answer
The game will be having animations or simulations followed by question and answers
The game will be having just simulations and videos and no quizzes or testing
The game will be having a reward system for the correct answers and also a ranking system or badge system for each rank the player completes
Multiplayer games with ranks and time limitations increase the involvement and interest of players to use the game
Plan for the subject and content that needs to be in the game first.
Content and Reliability
Contents may be in form of Texts, Images, Videos, and any other File formats as per one need such as DICOM files for radiological images compared with ordinary jpg and pdf.
Obtain the contents that are needed only from reliable sources. As most of the open sources are not validated properly. Consider partnering with Institutions, Digital libraries, hospitals, and other areas. Keep in mind that the content should not misdirect the users in many ways as the aim of the game is dealing with the health sector where should not be any room for mistakes.
Making of the Game content
With the necessary data in hand, it's time to make the content striking and engaging.
For example in some cases such as videos, the lighting or angle may not be user pleasing,
Some surgical procedures or some concepts such as Immune reactions are better understood when presented with 3D animations,
Rich Content
Compare the traditional quiz model with Gamifies quiz models in the picture
The way of presentation of each quiz and the usage of colors
Immediate visual and audio feedback is necessary to create an impulse that the user is enjoying the progression of the game content.
Platform
Choose the platform as per your needs. The use cases may vary, For research inside institutions, just a single platform may be enough or even a single app on a single device may be enough.
For commercial purposes, the choice has to be made depending on the broadly available Operating Systems, mobile OS and also can be made for web
Also, know about the part of the app that requires server-side processing. As most of the apps, today are server-hosted. The most advantage of server-side hosting of the app’s database is to collect enough data for machine learning purposes and more
Cost and Development
For apps that need extensive development, such as creating 3d content and 3d videos, consider the cost factor too.
As health-tech peers are always versatile in their field of practice but it is better to reach out to developers and service providers for the technology part.
Focus the time available on filtering the quality content and plan further in case the development is commercial.
As Health-Tech peers, we know exactly what needs to be seen and what needs to be heard. So involved with the technical team in correcting the anatomical mistakes in the surgical animations, those cellular level molecular transport designs, those drug model actions, those disease condition videos, etc.,
Use the available Internationally validated resources to verify your structural 3d model or images or text with those resources.
Deployment
For research purposes, a shareable app package serves the purpose, whereas for commercial purposes deployment needs to be in the app market of respective companies.
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