Digital game-based rehabilitation, also known as gaming rehabilitation, is a therapeutic technique in which digital games are used to improve physical and/or mental conditions. Digital game-based rehabilitation has been a part of physical and occupational therapy in acute, rehabilitation, and community settings for several years. Behavioral health is still in the nascent phases of game-based rehabilitation. Mobile health, sometimes referred to as mHealth, has many different definitions. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defined mobile health as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices. These mobile devices include, but not limited to, smartphones, tablets, wearable computers, laptops, and handheld game consoles. These mHealth technologies generally fall into seven different categories. These categories are: 1. Chatterbots2. Patient monitoring devices3. Microcomputers4. Mobile telemedicine/telecare devices5. Mobile operating system technology6. Data collection software7. Mobile applicationsMobile health has constantly evolved since its inception. The integration of another technology, educational games, has provided mobile health technologies with a new genre of a mobile application making game-based rehabilitation an emerging technology in mHealth. These mHealth apps are integrated either for rehabilitative purposes (“game-based rehabilitation”), educational purposes (“game-based learning”), assessment purposes (game-based assessment”), or for a combination of two or all three. Mobile health apps that were solely for rehabilitative purposes address issues such as sex education, fruit and vegetable intake, self-care/symptom management, increasing physical activity, health education, breastfeeding, smoking cessation, obesity management, and recovery from a somatic injury or disorder.
Digital game-based rehabilitation, also known as gaming rehabilitation, is a therapeutic technique in which digital games are used to improve physical and/or mental conditions. Digital game-based rehabilitation has been a part of physical and occupational therapy in acute, rehabilitation, and community settings for several years. Behavioral health is still in the nascent phases of game-based rehabilitation. Mobile health, sometimes referred to as mHealth, has many different definitions. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defined mobile health as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices. These mobile devices include, but not limited to, smartphones, tablets, wearable computers, laptops, and handheld game consoles. These mHealth technologies generally fall into seven different categories. These categories are: 1. Chatterbots2. Patient monitoring devices3. Microcomputers4. Mobile telemedicine/telecare devices5. Mobile operating system technology6. Data collection software7. Mobile applicationsMobile health has constantly evolved since its inception. The integration of another technology, educational games, has provided mobile health technologies with a new genre of a mobile application making game-based rehabilitation an emerging technology in mHealth. These mHealth apps are integrated either for rehabilitative purposes (“game-based rehabilitation”), educational purposes (“game-based learning”), assessment purposes (game-based assessment”), or for a combination of two or all three. Mobile health apps that were solely for rehabilitative purposes address issues such as sex education, fruit and vegetable intake, self-care/symptom management, increasing physical activity, health education, breastfeeding, smoking cessation, obesity management, and recovery from a somatic injury or disorder.