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Gamifying Patient Engagement: Driving Quality Care in a Changing Climate
As climate change reshapes the world, healthcare is also being made to accommodate. Extreme weather, rising temperatures, and shifting disease patterns are not distant thoughts. Today they are directly affecting patient health. It means healthcare providers need to come up with new ways to involve patients and deliver quality care.
One solution that is emerging is gamification.
The term gamification is defined as the application of game-like elements in non-game contexts. In healthcare, it can spur patients to help manage their own well-being. So now, for example, a mobile app might offer points for hydration tracking during heatwaves or step accounting in indoor spaces. Some of these features are simple but very interactive with patients, helping the patients know what is going on and keeping them involved in their care. This is not just to make health management fun, it’s to actually drive real behavior change. There are studies that indicate that gamification improves patient engagement and adherence to any health routine (Sardi et al., 2017).
This is all the more urgent due to climate change. Patients are in need of tools for them to adapt to new health risks that are developing like heat stress or respiratory issues caused by poor air quality. This gap can be…
