Video/Online Games for Health: 12 US Research Teams Receive Major Grants

Twelve research teams from across the US have been chosen to receive major grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The $2 million in grants will help the teams explore how games can increase physical activity in patients as well as encouraging prevention and self-management of health conditions.

This is the first round of grants to be awarded from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Health Games Research national program, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Funded studies explore topics ranging from how motion-based games may help stroke patients progress faster in physical therapy to how people in substance abuse treatment can practice skills and behaviors in the virtual world to prevent real-world relapses.

The winning research teams will be announced during a live, phone-based news conference at 1:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 29, 2008. There will be a full Q&A session with speakers Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., communication researcher, Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, University of California at Santa Barbara; and Chinwe Onyekere, program officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio.

For those curious individuals who want to know what projects are being funded, a streaming audio replay of this news event will be available as of 6 p.m. EDT on May 29 at http://healthgamesresearch.org/.

via Press Release