Students at Dundee’s Abertay University have designed a video game allowing players to virtually treat Tuberculosis sufferers from around the world.
Project Sanitarium, a partnership between Abertay and The University of St Andrews, aims to give players and researchers the ability to carry out drug trials on “virtual patients” without the financial costs and risks associated with non-virtual trials.
The game, designed by a group of undergraduate students as part of their third year project, won gold in the Healthcare category at this year’s Serious Play Awards and third place in the Microsoft Azure Cloud Gaming Innovation Challenge.
It was created as part of research into the disease to reduce the cost of clinical trials which can cost millions of pounds and take up to ten years to pass stringent testing.
It’s hoped that by allowing students the opportunity to carry out drug tests as part of the game, certain drugs can be approved or vetoed before they are passed as fit to be treated on patients.
John Brengman, student producer of Project Sanitarium, explained why he wanted to become involved in the project, he said: “The scale of the global tuberculosis pandemic is absolutely terrifying, but there’s still very little awareness about this disease.
“You have as much chance of surviving Ebola without treatment as you do of surviving tuberculosis with treatment. We want to use games technology to help tackle this massive problem, through raising awareness and helping test the scientists’ mathematical model.”
Professor Stephen Gillespie from the University of St Andrews added: “By developing Project Sanitarium into an effective teaching tool for the public and health professionals we can demystify the disease and help more patients to complete their treatment and be cured.”
The game prototype is available for free Windows and Mac download from http://sanitarium.radicationgames.com.