Who We Are

Health Games Research is a national program that provides scientific leadership and resources to advance the research, design, and effectiveness of digital games and game technologies that promote health. It is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio and headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  The Pioneer Portfolio supports innovative projects that may lead to breakthroughs in the future of health and health care.

There is both an art and a science to designing health games that are appealing, engaging, and impactful.  Health Games Research provides the science.

We work with creative game designers and artists to integrate well tested principles of learning and health behavior change into games that motivate players to improve their health habits and take better care of their health problems. 
Read more »

Health Games Research brochure

Stay Connected

Sign up for our mailing list to receive occasional e-mail news and information.

For Email Newsletters you can trust

Our Publications

Research Briefs

Featured Colleagues

Recent Tweets

Tweet
How Social Health Games Can Make You Trimmer and Fitter -- article in US News -- http://t.co/0DUHCS9h #health #games
6 hours 34 min ago
Study finds stationary bike riding with virtual racing games improves cognitive function in older adults http://t.co/Mw5nSx2y @pioneerrwjf
1 day 2 hours ago

What's New

  • A new peer-reviewed research journal will begin publication in Fall 2011. Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications will include studies of health games and news from the field.
  • The 1st annual Games for Health Europe conference will take place October 24 and 25, 2011, in Amsterdam.
  • See an informative video about research on Lit to Quit, a breath-driven smoking cessation mobile game developed by our grantee Chuck Kinzer and his colleagues at Teacher's College. Watch the investigators play!
  • Here's a new audio interview of our grantee Cay Anderson-Hanley of Union College and her senior research colleague Paul Arciero of Skidmore College. They discuss their Seniors Cyber-Cycling study, focusing on effects of physical activity on cognitive health.
  • Leighton Read, our Featured Colleague, promotes games as tools for improving people’s health and the design of health care jobs.
  • See videos and a slide show of Debra Lieberman's presentations at TEDxAmericanRiviera; UCSB Center for Film, Television and New Media; Dust or Magic: Children's New Media Design Institute; UCSB Center for Information Technology and Society; and Serious Games Summit.