Getting patients to take their medications is a challenge in itself, and there’s only so much physicians can do without handing patients the bottle of water to wash pills down with each meal.
Not practical.
This issue literally costs insurance providers billions of dollars. Yes, billions. So someone thought outside the box, and is putting gaming techniques to use to help solve this problem. “ngmoco,” a mobile game company has taken on the challenge and is attempting to get users engaged in taking their medications a different way: a smartphone app.
“Oberfest built the app to engage users in their health, but he maintained some of the most viral aspects of mobile games, such as gifts, and a feature to see how friends are faring in their treatment. The app also includes a drug database and sends refill alerts to patients.”
By integrating the need to take medications with the ever addictive nature of the smartphone, game makers are hoping this new approach will help hold patients accountable in a way many people are accustomed to – via their phone.