RWJ’s Susan Promislo writes to tell you all:

RWJ has a new open source competition going on that closes in 6 days that I thought also might hold interest for your readers.  The current competition, "Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care," seeks innovative new ways that video/computer games and related technologies can transform health and health care.  The opportunities for games and health to intersect are expanding rapidly–for example,  Texas A&M University is developing the Pulse!! Project, a multimillion-dollar interactive virtual environment simulating operational healthcare facilities, procedures and systems.  Pioneer also has funded a team at the Univ. of Washington to explore how adolescents with diabetes may one day be able to transmit health data and communicate wirelessly with their providers via game consoles and cell phones.

At the Why Games Matter competition Web site, people can enter ideas for game-based applications to health and health care and/or comment on any of the entries that have been posted to date.

All competition finalists will win the opportunity to go to Baltimore in May 2008 to present their work at the Changemakers Change Summit held in conjunction with the RWJF-sponsored Games for Health Conference. Competition winners will receive a cash prize. The deadline to enter is Sept. 26 – we welcome participation among readers of THCB and very much appreciate any help in spreading the word about this competition. 

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