S3E9: Cosima Prahm＜＞ Games Improving Outcomes in Pain & Trauma Injuries

Rolling on to Episode 9!

We’re joined by Cosima Prahm

Cosima is Director of Centre for Clinical Research at Unfallkrankenhaus Trauma Hospital Berlin and post-doc chariotey, the Medical University of Berlin. She is a clinical neuroscientist with a background of research in plastic and reconstructive surgery relating to extremity reconstruction, prosthetic training, peripheral nerves, phantom limb pain and human machine interfaces. She founded the PlayBionic working group in 2017, which has led to applications for myoelectric signal training, immersive environments for phantom pain relief and more. Winner of multiple awards, including from Games for Change.

In this episode we explore:

• Learning from existing games on the market, and adapting the controls to enable people living with amputations to engage in the gameplay
• Building on this through listening and co-creating games with patients living with amputations and trauma, which has led to therapeutic benefits of game play.
• For players in your games who have had traumatic hand injuries, the distraction of the gameplay, means that patients are reducing their pain experience, and importantly, pushing the boundaries of their movement and functional therapy to recover earlier.
• The importance of making games outrageous and weird to create player desire and interest.
• The challenges of taking digital games as therapeutics beyond research studies into products and services available in clinical and residential settings – and something, as game designers and implementors, we need to collectively drive forward.

Show notes:

https://playbionic.org/about-us/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30503232/

https://games.jmir.org/2017/1/e3/