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Gamification will revolutionize fitness, health and health care by delivering a new interface with consumers and patients that capitalizes on the strong existing trends in how people want to receive information while developing new life skills. A gaming interaction engages people who are sometimes patients, while delivering need-to-know and want-to-know healthcare information and services in an enjoyable and often surreptitious manner while collecting data from consumers they willingly provide.

Gamification, the process of turning work into play, is growing exponentially. It’s no longer a theory; it’s reality, our reality. Social media, gaming and internet connected devices from mobile phones and accelerators to geolocation, augmented reality and M2M (machine to machine) sensors are changing our way of life.

Here’s the proof:

• Electronic gaming in all its forms is the number #1 entertainment industry on the planet estimated to reach $76B in 2013 with CAGR of 8.9%.

• Facebook is an enormous success (with revenues expected to reach $2 billion this year), where 500 million members are active users connecting with friends and playing games such as Farmville. The Farmville game is the biggest single experience on Facebook with 83 million active players (more than any other computer game).

• Club Penguin, a virtual world, social network and gaming environment for kids, was purchased by Disney for $350 million.

• Wii Fit has grossed more than $1billion dollars, and the overall Health eGames industry exceeded $6B dollars with the majority being spent with out of pocket dollars by consumers for games with a physical or brain fitness benefit

• Facebook a social network is nearly equal to Google in terms of unique visitors. According to AdAge’s Michael Learmonth “Web users go to Google to figure out where to go next; they go to Facebook to, well, hang out.”

• Nearly 5 billion phone subscribers worldwide and the Mobile gaming market is growing 20% a year and is estimated to reach $11.4B in 2011 with games comprising70 to 80% of all downloaded apps.

The commonalities are what Jesse Schell, game designer extraordinaire and professor at Carnegie Mellon, calls “psychological tricks” and what I call in my Health eGames Market Report “Stealth Health.” They are clever ways that gaming gets desired results. Using Club Penguin as a model, you could play for free, which earned you virtual money but in order to spend your virtual money, you needed to be a member for $6/mo. ($72/year – not bad for a “Free” game.) Successful games use the same model from Webkins (taking a real stuffed animal and creating his imaginary double online, with extras you could purchase) to adult games where adults challenge their friends and connect online in virtual worlds.

Just like a hammer (which can be used to build a house or commit a crime) – the new media and technologies can be harnessed for good, or not so good, purposes. The technology tool is neutral; it’s what we as human do to use it that matters.

The hook for the new model in gaming and especially Health eGames is that instead of escaping from reality to play games, now we are playing games to connect to reality. We can connect with friends and challenge them to a push up contest, walking challenge or diet program. The success of programs like Weight Watchers is that long before the current popularity of health-related games, they were using the power of social contagion theory and gaming to equal success. They were using the point system way before the current craze to link all our purchases and play to a points reward system.

Yes, gamification of content such as knowledge and skill based training is fun and engagement but is it effective. The report “Using Electronic Games to Empower Healthy Lifestyles, Prevention and Self-Care: Theory and Research Findings” by Debra A. Lieberman and Andrew Donner concluded: “Research on today’s health games provides clear evidence that games can improve health behaviors and in so doing can improve health.” The rise of Medical Education 2.0 which is the application of virtual worlds, high and low fidelity simulations, gaming and virtual reality to medical and professional education has also proven that these forms of immersive training methods are more engaging than the traditional classroom and just as effective or even more effective to teach and learn new knowledge and skills. We humans like to learn by doing!

The idea of changing or shifting our paradigm from a “have to” to a “get to” mentality when it comes to health will make all the difference. It you get to play a game to monitor your compliance with a disease condition because it earns you points, or you get to meet up with friends online to compete in a challenge will and are driving better self care and WILL make us all healthier in the years to come.

For patients, mobile social gaming is first and foremost fun, but it is also an engaging medium to improve health and fitness through an e-community of caring peers and professionals. By capitalizing on technologies embraced by billions of people worldwide, Health eGames can increase patient participation in a program, thereby improving its effectiveness. With 4.7 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, mobility is a key driver for increased “stickiness” of an application, especially when that application is in the form of an electronic game, which is the #1 form of entertainment worldwide. The mobile gaming market is experiencing significant growth at 20% per year, and 70 – 80% of applications downloaded are games. And the target demographic is not just young adults, since 42% of Americans over 50 are using social networking tools today.

Gamification is a core essence of the big three of Engagement 3.0.
• Work as play or Gamification (1) for pure entertainment and for improving life, work or school skills as efficiently but more engaging then other learning methods
• Everyone is connected through Internet enabled Mobile Devices (2)
• Social Media (3) platforms from Facebook and Twitter to SharePoint along with the apps and compelling game experiences (Farmville) deliver the place to hang, play or do collaborative work

All of this means that now is the time for investment in “Engagement 3.0” is the application of the popular new, experiential media used by billions – social media + mobile + productive entertainment – in all its various forms (video games, mobile games, virtual worlds, MMORPG, virtual reality, social utilities, etc.) to improve our lives. Engagement 3.0 is a high touch, high tech connection with people that provides real utility in solving problems, improving convenience and enriching lives through social connections.

The trends indicate that mobile social gaming is the increasingly preferred method for consuming content and information. For decades, there has been a disconnect between vast repositories of information that could improve health status and the targets of that information, the patients that most need to access it. Combining these two realities means that gaming is the ideal solution for a forward-thinking company to change the paradigm for delivering information that could lead to increased therapy compliance or collect information that could lead to earlier diagnoses, just to provide two examples.

The gamification of health is a natural progression from the health education model of reading and learning to watching these videos and learning to learn by doing and play, which by the way is the natural way that all humans learn from the day we are born till the day we die.

Every aspect of fitness, health and health care will be transformed by Engagement 3.0 tools, technologies, programming and experiences, just as every part of our everyday work, family and play lives are being transformed.

Let’s quickly take a look at “Pharma as a Service” (PaaS) rather than simply the selling of a pill for an acute or chronic condition. We know that most pharmaceutical agents will be more effective if they are taken properly and if the beneficiary takes other actions such as appropriate amounts of physical activity and proper nutrition. With cloud enabled support, pills can be packaged with monitoring, incentives/recognition, peer support networks and other value added services. With the increasing demonstration that multi-modal interventions improve health status and reduce costs, the value proposition to the patient, employer and insurer can be made. Isn’t your health and happiness worth a reasonable monthly subscription fee? After all, now we are paying just for our cable and mobile phone service connection. Why not put that connection to use for us and our health? Continuing the drug compliance example, value added services around will transition an ordinary cell phone into a beneficial healthy experience through Engagement 3.0 connections.

Now is the time to act. Meet people where they are – in games, music, entertainment and solving their day to day problems. This can be done with the engagement and effectiveness of gaming, social media and mobile to improve the and impact lives, both individuall and part of our communities.

For decades, there has been a disconnection between the vast repositories of information that could improve health status and the beneficiaries of that information, with multiple data sources on the fitness, health and medical side enabled by data driven Engagement 3.0 media delivers potential to tackle the difficult challenges. Leadership is the key ingredient within forward-thinking companies and networks necessary to guide us from a culture of obesity and reactive care to a culture of health and proactive support of people in their lives.

Stay tuned — the ride has only just begun! The next generation of mobile social gaming experience such the latest augmented reality tags and billboards or QR codes (Quick Response) in the air by your favorite store or geo-location based marketing offers are sure to keep us on the edge of our seats. From imagination springs all things, so…

Imagine…Think…Innovate…Deliver Utility in Your Solutions.

This article is based on information and insights from the upcoming market report “Engagement 3.0” being authored by Douglas Goldstein, CEO, iConecto, Inc., Andy Donner, Managing Director, Physic Ventures and Michael Hansen, CEO of Matchbox Ventures.