Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
The macinima below was created by John Miller from MUVErs, and it outlines a fairly comprehensive nursing simulation revolving around a patient with chest pain:
It’s certainly one of the more well fleshed out simulations that would be useful as an adjunct to standard nursing labs and practicums.
The individual ex-addict’s perspective has always held power, no matter the source of the addiction. In the MMO gaming sphere, a recent addition to the blogosphere is ExGamer.net. Run by a 40-year old Canadian guy and 44-year old Dutch woman, it’s a blog in its early stages but it does give some interesting personal insights [...]
As mentioned last month, I had the pleasure of attending a conference on e-health as well as an evening discussion on the formation of a Games for Health special interest group as part of HISA. Aside from the very exciting outcomes from both those events, which I’ll discuss further in the future, it forced me [...]
Australian Second Life resident, Seshat Czeret, provides a guest post, which appeared on The Metaverse Journal in the past week. Thanks Seshat! There is always a lot of talk about ‘accessibility’, so-called ‘making things usable for the disabled’. You also hear a lot about phrases like ‘discrimination’, ‘equal opportunity’ and ‘political correctness’. It can be [...]
The Economist has an interesting article on the use of Second Life in training people around virtual consent. It’s an area where a virtual world has strengths (the ability to recreate a real-world situation) without some of the downfalls (lack of clinical complexity due to technological limitations). Another aspect that has struck me over the [...]
Via John Norris, there’s a call for feedback on The Path of Support, which is a great resource in Second Lif that links to health support groups in-world: Hi all..I’m posting this for the good folks at Indiana University School of Social Work. Tell us how YOU feel about The Path of Support! You are [...]
Jon-Paul Cacioli is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology student at Deakin University, and he’s currently conducting a study on body image in virtual worlds. In his words: “I am looking for participants, male and 18+ to complete a survey regarding both their real world and virtual world body images and psychological states.” He needs 300 [...]
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper has run a very interesting article on the issue of addiction and World of Warcraft. The key quote for me from the article, from Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Richard Graham: He has called on Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, to waive or discount the costs associated with joining [...]
The University of Arkansas have their hospital well underway in Second Life. Dubbed ‘Razorback Hospital’, it’s purpose isn’t clinical in nature, more a prototype of how technologies like motion sensors and RFID can assist the functioning of a hospital. It’s all about health logistics. The goals of the project are: 1. Explore the future of [...]
A collaboration between Griffith University (Australia), Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand) and the University of Canberra (Australia), the Virtual International Day of the Midwife is in its third year (2009 and 2010 proceedings links). For more information or to express interest in presenting, check out the VIDM Wiki. The call for expressions of interest is as [...]
In the past week, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research released its second issue, and one article that caught my eye from a health viewpoint is a research paper titled: Ugly Duckling by Day, Super Model by Night: The Influence of Body Image on the Use of Virtual Worlds The intent of the study was [...]
One MMO player’s perspective on addiction. A worthwhile read – nothing new or groundbreaking but it at least engenders some self-examination. On key piece of social research in the future will be work days lost to MMO game playing. I’m aware of a few people who’ve called in sick to play World of Warcraft or [...]
A quick post to wish everyone the best for the coming year. I’ve made some broader predictions for the coming year, but I’m particularly excited about the prospects in regards to health interventions, research or education. It’s still relatively early days, but over the past year I’ve been struck by some of the great work [...]