For newly diagnosed diabetes patients, understanding their condition and managing it can be scary and overwhelming and that can be especially true of children. To ease a bit of the headache, many companies have developed technology applications that create fun, interactive ways for kids and their parents, as well as adults, to make diabetes less daunting and more manageable.
According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, “Diabetes currently affects more than 371 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 552 million by 2030.”
Amongside kids and young adults with Type 1 diabetes are an increasing number of children showing signs of Type 2 diabetes caused by obesity, it’s important for them to understand how the conditions work and what can happen if they don’t take care of their body the proper way.
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Because of this, entrepreneurs, like students at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, are thinking of ways to inform children about their condition by creating a video game to show how blood sugar imbalances affect those living with Type 2 diabetes.
According to a press release, the game, Coco’s Cove, “takes the player through an entertaining, multi-level puzzle game with actions in the game related to the highs and lows experienced by those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This subtle mechanic changes how the player moves through the level in a lighthearted, amusing way.” The game is available at the Android App Store.
Coco’s Cove isn’t the only game to educate people about diabetes, however.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation also provides two online games geared towards learning about Type 1 diabetes — Ketones Attack and Diabetes Dash.
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Sproutel‘s Jerry the Bear is a stuffed animal mixed with an interactive video game to help kids learn about diabetes. The bear teaches children with Type 1 diabetes how to manage blood-glucose levels, maintain a healthy diet and more, through interactive games and play.
The bear has technology in its stomach, limbs and mouth that detect injections and sense when he’s being fed food cards. He also comes with an insulin pen and backpack.
Sproutel co-founder and CEO Aaron Horowitz said, “With Jerry, kids can learn in a real world scenario without real world consequences.”
Learning about diabetes isn’t just for pediatric patients, though. An educational slot machine helps nurses understand diabetes care. Dr. Bradley Eilerman created the Winservice app, a mobile application that uses a random variable reward to motivate healthcare workers to learn more about diabetes. A nurse would be rewarded with something like a minute of paid time off after answering a question correctly.
Eilerman said, “There would be a progressive element so sometimes it would be 5 minutes or 30 minutes. Maybe once a quarter some would win a week [off].”
Another game-like educational model geared more towards adult education is the Diabetes Voyager created by Novo Nordisk and UK digital healthcare agency emotive.
Diabetes Voyager uses Oculus VR and Microsoft Kinect to create a virtual reality experience that takes users to different parts of the body of someone with diabetes. The user interacts in challenges related to diabetes management.
Interactive games and devices like these help make understanding the effects of diabetes a lot easier for both kids and adults.
Photo: Android App Store