Games for health education

The talk addresses the use of games to enhance learning in health education. The talk was illustrated with various games which illustrate the use of surprise and humour to stimulate learning. The speaker also highlighted the craft of composing educational games with reference to the illustrative examples, which included learning related to handling Ebola cases, child obesity and communication with patients. The talk then went on to use of social media in medical education, again with illustrative dynamic videos.

Questions concerned the reaction of medical doctors to this use of games and social media. The answer was that it is often determined by age, the younger ones being more open to these innovative uses of technology. Also, it was asked if there have been studies of the level of improvement that can be achieved. The speaker cited a paper which presents such a study. The speaker also suggested that the technologies should be introduced one at a time to ensure better acceptance.

This was an excellent, engaging and often humorous presentation with impressive, convincing and illustrative examples.