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Ground-breaking videogame for cystic fibrosis patients tested at Great Ormond Street Hospital
An innovative new game designed to help children with cystic fibrosis do their breathing exercises is undergoing medical testing at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Konglomerate Games, which recently received 拢10,000 of funding the Europe-wide Unloc Enterprise challenge sponsored by Verizon, is a company made up of students from Abertay University.
Their game, Archipelayo, has been designed around the Fizzyo Sensor, a bluetooth sensor which attaches to the physiotherapy devices which are used to enhance the聽 airway clearance techniques which people with cystic fibrosis perform.
These can be tedious and uncomfortable, and can last for up to an hour. Archipelayo takes this routine, and turns it into a series of fun mini-games.
The game also measures patients鈥� adherence to their treatment non-intrusively through analytics, and has been designed to encourage the correct techniques to combat the disease鈥檚 progression.
It is fully customisable to the patient鈥檚 individual exercises and stage of treatment.
Jamie Bankhead, CEO of Konglomerate Games, said: 鈥淎round 150 children are participating in the clinical testing across the UK, primarily at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The early signs are quite positive.
鈥淥ur data tells us that the average usage time for a player is 20 minutes, and that is fantastic. 80% of the breaths they are taking are deemed to be good quality which is great news.
鈥淭his suggests that not only is the fun there, but the medical benefit is there too.鈥�
The medical testing is due to end in November.
Emma Raywood, from the Physiotherapy Research Group at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: 鈥淭he response from the children has been excellent. We鈥檝e had feedback that the games are enjoyable, and that they have made the exercises feel quicker.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been told it鈥檚 helped them to feel they are doing their exercises in a more effective way, so we鈥檙e really pleased at how this has gone.
鈥淲e鈥檙e absolutely delighted at the collaboration with Abertay and Konglomerate Games. The games they delivered have been of the highest quality.鈥�
For more information about Konglomerate Games, visit:
For more information about Abertay鈥檚 videogames courses visit: /schools/school-of-design-and-informatics/computer-games-courses/
To find out more about Physiotherapy at UCL, visit:
