SBIR-STTR Award

This research seeks to develop and evaluate an educational computer game for children with diabetes. The goal is to impart essential knowledge and encourage positive attitudes and behaviors. Diabetes is manaized largely by patients themselves; patient knowledge and attitude are critical to the success of any treatment. Raya Systems has created a prototype role-playing computer game to address these needs. In the formative phase of this study, experts in education and pediatric endocrinology will evaluate this prototype, and children at a pediatric diabetes ward will play it. The prototype will be modified on the basis of this evaluation. In the summative phase, the study attempts to assess children's interest in computer games as educational material and identify which type of children respond to the computer game mcdium by correlating the child's participation in diabetes self-management with interest and attention to the computer game. Outpatient children take surveys about their diabetes management regimen and then choose between the computer game and a videotape. Separately, parents are also surveyed about diabetes management activities. When they finish with their activity children complete a second questionnaire surveying key information recall, interest in both their peers and their own additional diabetes education, and the activity itself. The final report will assess the game's effectiveness for diabetes education and will recommend a design for a Nintendo game. Raya Systems is a licensed Nintendo developer, and in Phase II, the Nintendo game will be programmed. The final product will be marketed to pediatricians and parents with diabetic children.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:The research will result in a marketable video game to aid in education of children with diabetes which can be sold to parents, teachers, and physicians.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

We will develop and study an educational video for children with diabetes. The goal is to impart essential knowledge and encourage positive attitudes and behaviors. Diabetes is managed largely by patients themselves. Patient knowledge and attitudes are critical to the success of treatment. Phase I established the feasibility of using a computer game to teach children about diabetes. Concurrently, a prototype game was designed for a popular home-based video game system. Phase II will expand this prototype into a commercial quality educational video game and study its efficacy in diabetes-education in a controlled trial. Children with diabetes, ages 10 to 14, will receive the video game to use at home for two months. Researchers will measure the subject's knowledge of diabetes, attitudes, self-efficacy, behavior and metabolic control using pre-tests, post-tests and a six-month followup. The results will be compared with patients not receiving the intervention. As a check on the measures, the game cartridges will unobtrusively measure usage and the players' ability to master the diabetes-based game strategy. The researchers hypothesize that a properly designed educational intervention, combined with the intrinsic motivations of entertainment quality video games, could lead to significant improvements in the knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, behavior and metabolic control of children with diabetes.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:This research could result in a commercially viable educational video game for children with diabetes, which could be sold to parents, physicians and diabetes educators.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)