In May of 2016, the El Paso Times published a series of articles detailing the extent of liver disease in the El Paso-area Hispanic population. This led The Hospitals of Providence, an El Paso-area health system to collaborate with the newspaper and a gamification software company to develop an online trivia game focused on liver disease.
The newspaper series revealed that more Hispanics in the El Paso area died each year from liver disease than from lung or breast cancer. It also found that the county’s death rate from liver disease was twice as high as the state average in 2013. As liver disease is often preventable, hospital officials decided to follow the lead of other providers who have used online tools and interactive games to target specific populations to provide information about disease prevention.
An online trivia game on liver health topics was developed. It includes educational videos, links to a podcast and infographics on liver disease. As of early January, the game has been played more than 3,000 times on mobile devices and computers.
The gamification software company, OfferCraft, plans to develop more mHealth games in the future. Aron Ezra, CEO of OfferCraft, says, “While this game deals with liver disease, in the future we aim to release new games to provide important information about many other diseases. Making education about a tough subject less intimidating and more memorable can help improve health and save lives.”