Necessity breeds solutions. mHealth Games, is a perfect
example of how creative efforts to solve a problem can generate powerful
solutions that work. Picture perfect innovation. Cost effective tools developed
by and for those on the front lines. Disruption of the greatest kind.
In August of 2013, I was given an opportunity to design and
implement an ICD-10 training program for a large managed care organization in
Miami. This is not as easy as it may sound. Most coders, including myself, have
been doing it for so long that we think in code. The idea of having to retrain
our brains as well as our providers was almost an unimaginable task. Knowing
this I quickly realized the one variable that would ensure success was the
ability to create content that would engage everyone. But how?
This particular organization spanned 4 states and 3 time
zones. Efficiency was critical. The ability to monitor and measure the amount
of engagement on a daily or hourly basis would provide the intelligence that I
needed to modify, adjust and improve the content. I knew what I needed to
succeed, but could I execute?
Creative content is what activates consumers to engage over
and over. It is what keeps them coming back. I am not an IT person. I have no
technical training at all, other than that which was required to graduate. How
was I going to pull this off? I could hire a company who specializes in IT or
even e-learning, but would that accomplish my goal? No, although experts in
their field, they lacked the experiences of a coder, and that was what I knew I
could capture my audience with.
So we started experimenting with tools to engage. The first
one took over two weeks. I took the top 200 ICD-9 codes and mapped them
backwards and forwards to the corresponding ICD-10-CM codes. I added specific
conventions to each mapping and added tips for clinical documentation. I
thought I had knocked it out of the park. I sent the final project out and
waited for feedback. I kept waiting and waiting, until I finally realized that
even as great as the tool was, it wasn’t applicable to what we were doing
today.
So, I came up with a better idea and requested the top 20
codes from each of their providers. With this new information I was able to
create a personalized training program for each provider. Surely, they would be
interested in learning about the codes they use on daily basis and how to
mitigate any impact to their revenue. But again, I was wrong. This still wasn’t
able to truly engage at the level I needed to succeed.
At this point, I was desperate for a better way and turned
to Google to research alternative methods. I spent at least 200 hours reading
about technology and how it is being used in distance education. What I found
was amazing! Really smart people had created amazing tools that would allow me
to work with technology. That was a defining moment! A change in paradigm had
occurred. I was no longer dependent upon others to close the gap between what I
wanted to create and what I was capable of creating.
This is where the fun begins. I had found the tools and now
it was time to really start creating engagement. Had I of known the complexity
of trying to learn new software, design games and teach ICD-10 - I may not have taken the challenge. This is actually much harder than it sounds,
but the results were well worth the time, talent and energy!
The learning curve was steep and fast. I can not tell you
how many times I considered quitting, but then I would look at the results and
I knew this had the potential to change everything! Why? Because these games
are not just games. They are published using the xAPI or “experience API”. This
means that we now are able to learn as much about our learners as they are
learning from us!
Consider, the power of one game and the insight of data it
could provide. The traditional tracking methods of pass/fail have now been
replaced by the ability to visualize when a learner has both interacted with
the concepts and mastered them. Thus creating an individual path to success!
These are the tools of the future! They create the
foundation for the new learning health care system, but most of all they
provide high value at little cost. We already know that games activate consumer
engagement, but the time to market and cost of production complicated the
process and reduced the return on investment.
Over the last few weeks, I have spent hours upon hours
discussing the potential impact on consumer engagement and the potential value
of taking mHealth Games to the next level. I have listened to stakeholders from
every end of the ecosystem describe their version of how, why, and what this
expansion could look like. Opportunities that I never thought possible have
been discussed with people who can actually make them happen. But what if we
choose to grow organically, where we continue to have to the freedom to create,
deliver, modify and improve? After all we have just begun.
The single greatest take-away from this week was how every
conversation of “growth” had the same plan, “By partnering with us, we will be
able to bring in engineers and you won’t have to design games anymore!” But doesn’t
that defeat the entire purpose of this journey?
Kameron Gifford
mHealth Games
