The health care industry

Orlando hospitals working to level up on health care aid

and videogame makers are teaming up in an effort to teach patients about diseases and other health-related issues.

The usually conservative healthcare industry in Central Florida has turned to local video game makers to discover new ways to teach patients about disease and other health-related issues, potentially saving lives in the process.

It’s an effort to reach young people where they spend a good portion of their time: on connected devices.

“It took the telephone 75 years to get 50 million users,” said Dr. Shayan Vyas, telehealth director of the CareConnect program at Nemours Children’s Hospital. “Angry Birds captured that in 35 days. The traditional way of doing things is not scalable.”

That’s the reasoning behind the three-day MeGa Health Jam, an event that runs through Sunday with teams of programmers building games and demonstrating them.

“If we can figure out how to engage with children in a fun way that they are already doing, and we can turn that into a way to prevent disease, that is very intriguing,” said Vyas, who has 13 years’ experience, including University of Florida Health and Miami Children’s Hospital.

For instance, he said, diabetes patients could earn points in a video game by answering trivia questions about their disease. As players earn points, it also could reinforce knowledge about the disease, he said.

As gamification increases, its ability to affect industries like health care also will grow, said Kunal Patel, co-founder of the video game group Indienomicon — which stages MeGa Health Jam as part of a series. Indienomicon strives to bring video-game concepts to various industries in Central Florida, including space and professional sports.

“Healthcare is historically a very conservative and slowmoving industry,” said Patel, who helped organize the event along with Kelli Murray of the local Health Innovators group. “We think there are real opportunities to uncover new solutions, products and companies by taking advantage of our regional strengths.”

Full Sail University game design instructor Caris FrazierBaker, who suffers from the hereditary disorder Marfan syndrome, said she hopes tech can help handle her condition someday. The 26-year-old’s con-

RED HUBER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Caris Frazier-Baker, 26, who teaches game design at Full Sail University, displays an X-ray of her skeleton. She has Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue and can be fatal. Frazier-Baker hopes game design can...