Screens can stress us by their physical properties or by their content . Screens can also de-stress us, by extending our access to information and communication. We investigate the tipping point at which screens can become a health hazard.
Our research aims to find patient-centred and evidence-based gamified cognitive and emotional interventions that activate brain networks that are affected by drugs used for treatment of chronic pain and mood disorders.
Play the Pain seeks to develop a playful and innovative digital citizen's laboratory to help us put the patients at the heart of studying chronic pain. Chronic pain affects one of each five Canadians. The severity of and tolerance to chronic pain varies with myriad medical as well as psychosocial factors. This FRQSC-funded project brings patients, scientists, designers and engineers together, to investigate the best ways to empower patients to assist in advancing medial sciences.
Qualitative data from the lived experiences of the patients, and their creative expressions and actions for coping with chronic pain can guide better care or research towards cure.
More than entertainment, and therapeutic tools, serious games provide an opportunity for intergenerational communication and community building.
Mobile Health (mHealth) encompasses numerous strategies for digitized data collection, preventative monitoring and healthare interventions made possiible by advances in smart mobile communications devices that integrate biosensor and tracking technologies.
"Any new technique or idea or tool, while enabling a new range of activities by the user, pushes aside the older ways of doing things." Eric and Marshall McLuhan, Laws of Media.
Media Spa is born from the participatory project 'Finding Better Games for Older Adults", over two years of exploring the question of applications of digital games as a means of communicating and offering healthcare for seniors. This work highlighted the prevalence of games as means for personalized relaxation and cognitive self-challenge; as well as a means to connect socially, particularly with the younger generations.
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