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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Project HOPEconnectsKIDS
Year work began: 2005
Focus of activity: Service/process
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Project URL: http://www.HOPEconnectsKIDS.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation in one sentence? Bringing off the shelf networked gaming technology to a pediatric patient population, and measuring its impact as a 'novel peer support network'.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? Our pilot study focussed on using a wireless LAN to connect five users in different parts of a dialysis center so that they could play games with one another. While networked communities (Starbright) and stand-alone entertainment solutions (Starlight / GetwellGamers / ChildsPlay) are currently exist, HOPE is the first initiative that seeks to bring high-end networked gaming experiences to chronically ill children in the hospital and measure their impact. The pilot was primarily a safety and efficacy study, designed to demonstrate that these console stations could be brought into a high acuity clinical environment (hemodialysis) without disruption of physician / nurse workflow. We also noted that children who had a history of being non-compliant with their therapy demonstrated improved adherence to outpatient dialysis. While the technology may have had a part to play in this, we believe that it was the opportunity to develop a social network that really mattered to our kids
What barriers exist that are creating the problem your innovation is hoping to address/change? To echo points already explored in the mosaic of solutions, there is a strong stigma associated with gaming culture, especially within the field of healthcare. Also, of tantamount importance is the online safety of this potentially quite vulnerable population. The selection of age appropriate games, in addition to making this a closed environment that only members of HOPE (i.e. hospitalized children) can access are some of the primary barriers that we are in the process of addressing.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing. Currently we are in the process of implementing HOPE alpha, our headquarters of sorts, based at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Working in concert with the Child Life department, we are installing 24 Xbox360 consoles, interconnected by LAN, to one of the inpatient pediatric floors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Once HOPE alpha is complete, we intend to partner with children's hospitals around the country in addition to Microsoft in order to establish HOPE sites that are interconnected. We believe that this 'Hospital-based Online Pediatric Environment' (HOPE) will create the backdrop for a unique and compelling peer support network for our nation's chronically ill children.
How do you plan to scale your innovation? Therein lies the beauty. Because the end-user hardware is all off the shelf technology, we will be using the same backbone solution that is currently available commercially - Xbox Live. The primary challenges in terms of scalability lie in securing agreements among hospitals and Microsoft. No additional proprietary coding is planned.
Provide one sentence describing your impact. Receiving chemo therapy and saving humanity from the clutches of an alien invasion is hard work; thanks to HOPE, I don't have to do either alone.
What impact has your innovation had to date? Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? To date we've helped prove that networked gaming experiences can be safely installed into a busy outpatient dialysis unit. We've shown that in addition to the five patients we involved with out pilot study, the doctors and nurses who took care of them thought that the intervention was positive. Furthermore, our data suggested that children that were high risk for not being compliant with their dialysis regimen (outpatient dialysis, despite being life sustaining, is entirely voluntary) were more likely to return and undergo treatment.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation: With an appropriately powered trial, we hope to measure the impact that this 'novel peer support network' would have on such measures as quality of life scores, childhood depression scores,and body dismorphic perception scores, in addition to adherence to therapy.
What are the main barriers to creating your impact? Partnerships with other children's centers. Interconnection agreements via Xbox Live with Microsoft.
How is your initiative financed? We have received funds from a number of different sources. Sponsors include the Childsplay Charity, Gamestop, LegalZoom, Apogee Physicians and Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Provide information on your finances and organization: annual budget, annual revenue, number of staff: Funding thus far:
2005: $4500 (ChildsPlay) 2006: $24,000 (ChildsPlay + GameStop + Legal Zoom) 2007: $10,000 (Apogee Physcians) Number of full-time staff: 0 What is the potential demand for your innovation? Accurate numbers are difficult to estimate. By rough calculations, with the rate of growth that gaming culture is experiencing in this country, the demand will most assuredly outstrip our ability to install network equipped gaming consoles (or HOPE sites) to the nation's children's hospitals. Furthermore, with gaming's explosive growth witnessed internationally, it is very possible that HOPE, if steered correctly, could become an international phenomenon.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? Maintenance of the equipment, and updating of legacy software will be costly in the early life of the network. Substantial fiscal sponsorship agreements will be needed to support the network. We predict, however, that as bandwidth capability increases, games, content and even research survey tools will all be delivered via the network, obviating the need for costly re-installs.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. The original inspiration for HOPE came from an experience I had while doing a rotation in pediatrics at a teaching hospital during medical school. I had met a group of kids that had cystic fibrosis, and as a result, were no strangers to the concept of frequent hospital visits. The disease affects multiple organ systems, but the lungs take the brunt of the damage, with kids frequently being admitted for lung infections. These kids were essentially ‘vets’ of the pediatric hospital system, and really didn’t like being bothered by medical students with their unending questions and cold stethoscopes.
I remember striking up a conversation with one of the kids about gaming – and all of a sudden, we were equals, sharing insights on experiences we had had gaming, namely tuning up cars in Gran Turismo and outwitting Revolver Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid. The experience culminated in my smuggling in a laptop and cell phone a few days later to get onto Battle.net and do some online gaming. The whole experience got me thinking – how cool would it be to use online gaming communities as a way of bringing together hospitalized and/or socially isolated kids? Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material: Arun Mathews is currently director of research and medical education with the Apogee Physicians group, a nationwide hospitalist practice based in Phoenix, AZ. Board certified in internal medicine, he has always been fascinated by the marriage of medicine with technology. Dr. Mathews founded the HOPE research initiative at John Hopkins, inspired by an experience that lead him to believe that a passion for gaming could help kids better deal with the challenges of being in a hospital.
Contact Information:
Arun 'Disco Sanchez' Mathews
Lead Conspirator Project HOPEconnectsKIDS (Academic Program - In process of becoming 501c3) Discussions about this entry |
Building HOPE: Developing the Nation's First High-Speed Inter-hospital Gaming Network
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what is your website called because i want to go on it thankyou.
Furthermore, the thought of family members connecting with patients in and out of hospital and gaming together has always been a compelling one to me. I once read about a child who had been diagnosed with leukemia, with a father that traveled a great deal as a businessman, making in-person hospital visits difficult. They tackled the problem by agreeing to meet online and slay dragons together, which according to the boy, was absolutely the next best thing.
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really cheap airline tickets
Chrissy - zounds! the url from the Changemakers site isn't working! I'm really sorry about that! Our project url is www.HOPEconnectsKIDS.org - thanks for looking!
Thanks for your compelling entry, Dr. Mathews. It prompts some questions.
Can you describe further what you witnessed concerning the increased adherence among patients who'd previously been a bit weak on the adherence front? Do you think this increased adherence will extend to patients who will need to manage their own illnesses at home, rather than returning to (or being dependent upon) hospitals for their next round(s) of treatment?
I know that your project's name and goal, HOPE, indicate that it's focused on children experiencing chronic illnesses who are in hospitals. Have you the goal of extending your project to include kids who are chronically ill at home? I'd wonder whether the pleasure of -- perhaps even the increased adherence that comes from-- a child's finding a supportive environment in the hospital could be undermined by his/her losing that community once s/he returns home (in between treatments) or gets better.
I look forward to hearing your responses.
Best,
Diane
Changemakers
Diane,
Thanks for looking our 'blueprint' over!
a) We specifically asked our kids whether the HOPE carts made the process of dialysis more interesting, to which all the respondents replied yes. Furthermore, looking at the attendance records pre and post intervention, we noted a rise in the attendance rates from one boy and one girl who previously were known for their absenteeism. As this wasn't a powered study looking at this specifically, we can only speculate as to the significance of this data, however, the implication that this somehow made dialysis more appealing was quite promising. With regards to increasing adherence at home - well, I'm glad you asked. Frankly it makes a great deal of sense to allow this type of intervention to take place at home. While our particular group of kids all had chronic kidney disease, the intervention lends itself well to all forms of chronic illness - in essence, any circumstance that creates the perception of ostracism from one's typical peer support group, be it in the hospital or out.
b) Furthermore, the thought of family members connecting with patients in and out of hospital and gaming together has always been a compelling one to me. I once read about a child who had been diagnosed with leukemia, with a father that traveled a great deal as a businessman, making in-person hospital visits difficult. They tackled the problem by agreeing to meet online and slay dragons together, which according to the boy, was absolutely the next best thing. I also liked the role-reversal that took place, with the child (being more adept at the game) taking the commanding role. So yes, to answer your question, the natural evolution of such a network would be to extend out beyond the reach of the hospital bed and provide a peer support 'safety net' through all the aspects of the disease, inpatient and outpatient.