And the Winners Are...

When the University of Pennsylvania chose the “Year of Games: Body and Mind” as the theme for this academic year, we said “Game on!” I am proud to say that Penn Nursing took the Year of Games farther than we ever anticipated. We developed the Game Solutions for Healthcare competition. The goal: To use technological innovation, games, and entrepreneurship as conduits to better health. Ten interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty, and staff took their ideas from promise to prototype.

We just announced the winners of our inaugural Game Solutions for Healthcare competition. They are:

FIRST PLACE MyDiaText, a text message goal reminder system for children aged 10-14 recently diagnosed with Type I diabetes.

SECOND PLACE Trigger Buster, a mobile educational health game to help children and their families learn about asthma.

THIRD PLACE Healthy Cities: Healthy Women, an educational, interactive, solution-based game designed to raise awareness of urban women’s health issues.

SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD Mission Reintegration, a discussion-starter game for military personnel on aspects of reintegration, interpersonal relationships, symptom recognition and management.

I am so proud of our winners, and all our teams. They have re-conceptualized game-playing as a path to health education, awareness, and treatment. These innovations could put nurses in the position of being entrepreneurs: That is value added to nursing science and nursing care.

The champion behind all these games is Dr. Nancy Hanrahan, the Penn Nursing associate professor who guided, mentored, inspired, and challenged the school community to develop so many promising games. For any new initiative, we need a champion, and Nancy has been ours.

So, what is our post-game plan? We will take the summer to consider next steps, how we are going to “level up.” 

Check back in September for the next round!