Sheba Medical Center Hosts Healthcare Game Jam to Develop Clinical Apps
Sheba Medical Center hosted a Healthcare Game Jam during the ARC Summit, where developers and medical staff created 30 gaming solutions for clinical challenges, including phantom limb rehabilitation and toddler diagnostics.
More than 100 game developers, designers, and medical professionals gathered at the Sheba Medical Center for the annual ARC Summit innovation week to participate in the Healthcare Game Jam, held in collaboration with the GameIS developer community.
The event addressed various medical challenges through gaming technology, ranging from helping children overcome the fear of surgery to diagnosing color blindness in toddlers and easing phantom limb pain in amputees. Avner Halperin, CEO of Sheba Impact, noted that the initiative builds on Israel's thriving gaming industry, which generates over ten billion dollars, combined with Sheba's medical innovation expertise.
Over 30 developer teams worked continuously for 30 hours, sleeping in sleeping bags at the hospital complex alongside doctors, nurses, and neuroscientists. The teams tackled approximately 40 clinical challenges defined in advance, successfully developing 30 distinct solutions.
Innovative Medical Games Presented
Among the standout projects presented at the summit were:
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MirrorBit: A rehabilitation game for amputees suffering from phantom limb pain, developed by high school students from the Peres Campus in Holon alongside researchers from Sheba's Clinical Brain Imaging Research Center. The game uses a computer camera to track the healthy hand's movements and generate a virtual hand, applying mirror therapy principles synchronized with musical rhythms.
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Color Blindness Diagnosis for Toddlers: A shape-matching game designed for children under three, identifying color perception without requiring knowledge of numbers or letters.
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Loopy: An augmented reality game developed for children aged 6 to 11 on the autism spectrum, allowing them to collaborate with a virtual character and practice social responses with a rewind feature.
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TRUST.exe: A simulation game designed to train doctors on when to rely on artificial intelligence systems and when to exercise critical judgment.
The selected solutions were showcased on the main stage before approximately 1,200 participants, with Sheba planning to advance five leading projects toward development and clinical implementation in hospitals.
