Since video games have come about, it’s not surprising to know that the old Operation games have been left in the dust and become much more intense and interactive. The Wii game system is on its second medical game already, Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

If you don’t know what a Wii is, you’ve got to find out. It’s a cool video game system that’s more for us over-teens and early 20s folks. It’s interactive to the point that you hold a remote and you can control the movements on the screen.

I played Trauma Center last year and I ended up buying it a few weeks ago. My 20-year-old daughter wanted to rent it yet again. At this point, it made much more sense to buy the thing.

It’s a fun game. You get to remove shards of glass, do surgeries and more. It’s not an easy game and if you’re frustrated easily, it could be a good thing you didn’t go into surgery. There are some things I don’t like about the game though and from reading reviews, I know I’m not the only one. There’s too much “talking” as they change from one scene to another. I think it’s great the first time you play, so you can learn the story line, but really? If I’m playing for the fourth time that day, do I really need to hear it all again. No – if I’m playing for the fourth time in one day, I think I need a life!

When I was studying nursing, I was only in the operating room once, to observe. I didn’t see very much because I was so far back (purposely so!), so this is the closest I’ll ever get to surgery, unless I’m the patient.

~~~

Image: Nintendo.com

Post from: Healthbolt

Trust the British to come up with a unique, even bizarre, way to combat Swine H1N1 flu.

Most governments are focusing on helplines, information on anti-viral drugs, and specialized clinics.

But British health chiefs have looked outside the square and created The Flu Pandemic Game.

It’s a role-playing game that simulates ‘the effects of a flu pandemic on staffing in an imaginary group of small businesses’ through the role of the dice and chance cards.

The players (3 to 60) assume staff identities at imaginary workplaces. The game has 15 rounds that represent 15 weeks of work. The players learn whether or not they will go down with the flu through the roll of the dice, with certain sets of numbers indicating their fates. As the rounds progress, the risk increases.

But it’s not all fun. At the end of each round, surviving players are asked to discuss the impact that the flu pandemic is having on their ‘imaginary’ workplaces.

The game, by the way, comes with this government health warning:

‘Some people may find it disturbing to play using details of their own organisation.
The game is a simulation and has no effect on subsequent events, but it can seem a little like fortune telling.’

By the way, do not expect the be seeing this game any time soon at the local Toys r Us.

It’s not for sale.

It was designed for use simply as a training resource for local businesses and voluntary organizations to develop their own business continuity plans.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

A new study, funded by the Flight Attendent Medical Institute, finds that casino workers face higher risks of heart disease and lung disease because a smoke filled work environment.

In the study, the air quality in three Pennsylvania casinos was tested for levels of two indicators of tobacco smoke – cancer-causing chemicals and particles small enough to inhale. 

At the same time, eight volunteers, each of whom spent four hours in the casinos, provided urine samples which were measured for levels of a tobacco smoke byproduct.

Measuring the air quality revealed that the tobacco smoke indicators inside the casino was four to six times higher than outside.

And testing the volunteer’s urine samples showed a 10 fold increase in tobacco smoke byproduct levels in the urine.

All in all, a fairly clear indication that the air that you breathe in casinos is full of smoke.

Seems to me it might be time for casinos to follow the lead of restaurants and bars and ban smoking altogether.

It works pretty good here in New Zealand. And there doesn’t seem to be any evidence it’s reduced the number of people visiting the casino. If anything, it might have actually increased the number of visitors.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

Take a gamble

People bet on the horses, football, basketball, and pretty much any sport in between. So why not bet on weight loss? That’s what over a 1,000 dieters in the United Kingdom have signed up for on the StickK website.

The American based start-up was created last year by two Yale professors who wanted to help people achieve their goals and objectives by enabling them to form Commitment Contracts.

Dieters in the UK have been joining up and betting on their ability to lose a specified amount of weight in a specified time frame. If  you don’t succeed,  you lose money.

But you don’t just lose a designated amount of money. The money that you lose is paid to a charity that you nominated when you join up.

But wait, there’s a twist. You have to nominate a charity that you would not normally support – preferably one that supports a cause that you do not agree with.  

Plus a Group e-mail will be sent to your friends informing them of your failure to reach your target weight loss.

Sounds pretty extreme.

Not sure it’s something I’d be willing to sign up for. But there are studies that incentive schemes – usually resulting in gaining some sort of material gain – do work, if only in the short term.

So what do you think?

Would you be willing to bet on your dieting success?

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

 A recent UK study has found that playing the computer based puzzle game Tetris soon after witnessing a traumatic event might just help erase memories of the events witnessed.

In the study, forty participants between the ages of 18 and 47 were subjected to a 12 minute video that featured horrific images of physical injury and death. After watching the video, all the participants were then kept busy for the next half hour filling out forms. Then 20 of the participants were installed in front of computers screens and instructed to play Tetris for 10 minutes. The other 20 participants were left to sit quietly with nothing to do.

The results:

Those playing Tetris apparently reported less flashbacks to the images of injury and death they had witnessed in the video than those who had simply sat and did nothing. Even a week later, the participants who played Tetris continued to report less flashbacks.

The study’s authors have labeled using computer games in this way a “cognitive vaccine” – a means of preventing traumatic memories from sinking into your consciousness. 

Could Tetris be the answer for the up to one in five US military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from post traumatic stress disorder ? 

Post from: Healthbolt

But for two Belgian beer fans, that’s simply not enough. Seems that they think you should be able to relieve yourself and shot aliens or slalom down ski slopes at the same time.

To that end, they designed and have recently released the ‘Place to Pee’ video game. It’s set up in a booth and caters for two users at a time. Gamers (ie pee-ers) score by aiming and hitting sensors positioned on either side of the urinal.

And ladies, if you think that it’s just a ‘man thing’, think again. Seems that they have created a paper cone allows women to play too. Lucky us!

Personally, I think these guys have more than one beer too many!!!

(source – Reuters)

Post from: Healthbolt

Sounds bizarre but researchers at the University of Washington are hoping that Foldit, a new computer game will help uncover the key to medical mysteries ranging from Alzheimer’s Disease to vaccines.

There are more than 100,000 different kinds of proteins in the human body. These proteins form cells, make up the immune system, and determine the speed of chemical reactions.

Scientists already know the genetic sequence of many of the proteins but not how they fold up into the complext shapes that play the crucial biological roles within the human body.

This is where Foldit comes in.

This computer game will allow players to manipulate on-screen images of protein chains and attempt to predict their folding patterns. Points are earned for every chemically stable folded protein they create. The more they create, the more they earn. The reward – maybe one day the Nobel Prize in Medicine according to the game’s creators.

In recent game trials, hundreds of players were provided with 40 protein puzzles (the folding solutions already known to the game makers) to solve and most of the players were able to find the correct structure faster than the computer could.

The next step is to provide players with proteins with unknown folding patterns and let them do the research in protein structure prediction through game playing.

Sounds like a unique form of scientific outsourcing.

This might be the one computer game that parents will encourage their children to play…

You can download it here.

(Source)

Post from: Healthbolt

10mg Interactive / Bunny Surgery

Post from: Healthbolt

Check it out:
Reaction Time Trainer – Gamefudge

Post from: Healthbolt

This is how you will die before you win Powerball, statistically speaking…

• 1 in 78: Automotive accident
• 1 in 314: Assault by firearm
• 1 in 1,313: Medical/Surgical complication
• 1 in 2,360: Fall down stairs
• 1 in 3,060: Drowning/submersion while in/falling into natural water
• 1 in 4,284: Choking on food
• 1 in 7,278: Pool drowning
• 1 in 8,988: Fall from a ladder
• 1 in 27,559: Caught between (non-automotive) objects
• 1 in 62,468: Legal execution
• 1 in 79,746: Lightning Strike
• 1 in 124,936: Explosion/rupture of pressurized device
• 1 in 340,733: Fireworks discharge
• 1 in 500,000: Struck by extra-terrestrial object
• 1 in 1,249,356: Ignition or melting of nightwear
• 1 in 1,874,034: Contact with venomous snake/lizard
• 1 in 146,107,962: Winning Powerball

Good luck!

“Death-by” odds are from the National Safety Council online at nsc.org and from LiveScience.com; The Odds of Dying.

Powerball odds are from Durango Bill’s Mathematics; How to Calculate the Probabilities for the Powerball Lottery (Updated for the 55 ball game.)

Post from: Healthbolt