SharpBrains

My presentation to open our Games for Health Conference track is now available via SlideShare:

See Bird's Eye View of Cognitive Health Innovation

Description: Scientific, technological and demographic trends have converged to create a new $265m market in the US alone: serious games, software and online applications that can help people of all ages assess and train cognitive abilities. Alvaro Fernandez will provide a Bird’s Eye View of the science, market segments and trends, competitive landscape, and main challenges ahead, based on The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009 report released in May, which included Research Executive Briefs prepared by 12 leading scientists and a survey of 2,000+ decision-makers and early adopters.

61% of respondents to the survey Strongly Agreed with the statement “Addressing cognitive and brain health should be a healthcare priority.” But, 65% Agreed/Strongly Agreed with “I don't really know what to expect from products making brain claims.” In this session, Alvaro will publicly unveil the new book The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, To Keep Your Brain Sharp, co-authored by neuropsychologist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and himself, aimed at helping consumers and professionals understand and navigate this growing field.

To see slides, check out Bird's Eye View of Cognitive Health Innovation

Enjoy the 4th of July!

Games for Health and SharpBrains have partnered to bring you the first Cognitive Health Track in a Games for Health Conference, June 11-12th in Boston. If you are interested, in attending the conference, you can learn more and register Here.

To get a 15% off registration fees ($379), you can use discount code: sharp09, when you register Here.

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Cognitive Health Track, Powered by SharpBrains

Thursday, June 11th

10.20 (50m) Bird's Eye View of Cognitive Health Innovation
Speaker(s): Alvaro Fernandez, SharpBrains

Scientific, technological and demographic trends have converged to create a new $265m market in the US alone: serious games, software and online applications that can help people of all ages assess and train cognitive abilities. Alvaro Fernandez will provide a Bird’s Eye View of the science, market segments and trends, competitive landscape, and main challenges ahead, based on The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009 report released in May, which included Research Executive Briefs prepared by 12 leading scientists and a survey of 2,000+ decision-makers and early adopters.

61% of respondents to the survey Strongly Agreed with the statement “Addressing cognitive and brain health should be a healthcare priority.” But, 65% Agreed/Strongly Agreed with “I don't really know what to expect from products making brain claims.” In this session, Alvaro will publicly unveil the new book The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, To Keep Your Brain Sharp, co-authored by neuropsychologist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and himself, aimed at helping consumers and professionals understand and navigate this growing field.

11.20 (30m) The Allstate-Posit Science Partnership: Cognitive Training for Safer Driving
Speaker(s): Tom Warden, Allstate; Henry Mahncke, Posit Science

Evidence-based cognitive training programs have been available in retirement communities for several years. Now, they are reaching a younger population including Boomers through innovative partnerships, like insurers.

In October 2008 auto insurance company Allstate and brain fitness software developer Posit Science announced a research collaboration that could lead to "potentially the next big breakthrough in automobile safety". The purpose of this session is to review novel ways of getting the science of cognitive training into the real world where it can help people. Representatives from Allstate and Posit Science will discuss why these partnerships work for insurers, developers, and end users. They will also provide a thorough review of the evaluation process a major partner goes through when selecting a cognitive training company.

12.00 (30m) What Consumers Buy and Why
Speaker(s): Lindsay Gaskins, Marbles: The Brain Store

Launched in October 2008, Marbles: The Brain Store is a retail store that Continue Reading »

This is a press release that went through the wire earlier today. If you are interested, in attending the conference, you can learn more and register Here

Note that below you can find 5 out of the 12 sessions - we will announce the full track tomorrow. To get a 15% off registration fees, you can use discount code: sharp09, when you register.

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The Games for Health Project, organizers of the 5th Annual Games for Health Conference, today announced its first Cognitive Health Track powered by SharpBrains, a leading market research company focused on the brain fitness and the cognitive health market.

The Cognitive Health track builds upon previous year's sampling of sessions looking at cognitive health and fitness, expanding to a full two-day track at The Games for Health Conference, June 11-12, Boston, MA. The Conference features the largest gathering of organizations interested in the intersection between videogames, health and healthcare.

"There is already a very active cognitive health videogames industry and field of research," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Games for Health Conference. "We partnered with SharpBrains to bring their expertise in this field our conference planning. Together we have for the first time created a powerful set of sessions and a much needed conversation with researchers, thought-leaders and industry pioneers who will attend the event in June."

The track features a dozen sessions covering research findings and partnerships, implementation in insurance, consumer and clinical settings, and special sessions looking at innovative areas such as driver safety, healthy aging, attention deficits, stroke/traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis.

"The convergence of interactive media such as videogames with cognitive science opens the door to innovative and scalable approaches to Continue Reading »

Ben Sawyer and I just agreed to create a new Cognitive Health track -Powered by SharpBrains- at the 5th Annual Games for Health Conference. I will host the 11-session track, covering a variety of cognitive health and brain fitness topics and an overview of SharpBrains' upcoming report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009.

When and where: June 11-12th at the Hyatt Harborside Hotel in Boston, MA.

Context: The Games for Health Conference is produced by The Serious Games Initiative and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The conference brings together researchers, medical professionals, decision-makers at healthcare and insurance providers, innovators and game developers. I have attended a few times, and have always been impressed by the caliber of both speakers and everyone in the audience. Really a very good crowd.

Some options to participate?

1) Attend: The current price is $379, with a 15% discount if you use code "sharp09" (without quotation) when you register Here. Special price for students is $200.

Please note that the Cognitive Health track is being scheduled now - we will announce the detailed agenda during the month of May.

2) Speak: We are looking for innovators, researchers and decision-makers who would like to speak about their ongoing projects related to the use of games and other computer-based technologies for cognitive health.

If interested, please Contact Us, by May 1st, a couple of paragraphs summarizing a) your project, bio and organization, b) what key lessons learned and impressions you would share if given 20 minutes.

3) Advertise/ Sponsor/ Exhibit: To inquire about options, please contact Beth Bryant, one of the conference organizers, at bbryant at dmill.com

We are proud to collaborate with The Games for Health Conference and expand the Cognitive Health dialogue!

Landmark study just published: Basak C, et al "Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?" Psychol Aging 2008; DOI: 10.1037/a0013494.

Playing computer games improves brain power of older adults, claim scientists (Telegraph)

- The team at the University of Illinois recruited 40 adults over 60 years old, half of whom were asked to play a computer game called Rise of Nations, a role-playing game in which you have to build your own empire.

- Game players have to build cities, feed and employ their people, maintain an adequate military and expand their territory.

- Both groups were assessed before, during and after the video game training on a variety of tests.

- As a group, the "gamers" became significantly better – and faster – at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group. Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved and their reasoning ability was enhanced.

- (Professor Art Kramer, an author of the study published in the journal Psychology & Aging) "This is one mode in which older people can stay mentally fit, cognitively fit. I'm not suggesting, however, that it's the only thing they should do."

Professor Kramer and I discussed this study last June during our conversation on Why We Need Walking Book Clubs:

Question (me): Tell us more about your work with cognitive training for older adults.

Answer (Prof Kramer): We have now a study in press where we evaluate the effect of a commercially available strategy videogame on older adults’ cognition.

Let me first give some context. It seems clear that, as we age, our Continue Reading »

Very interesting new market development:
עסקה חדשה בקנדה לסטארט-אפ הישראלי אייס; עשוי לרשום הכנסות של עשרות ...
The Marker, Israel - Oct 28, 2008
מנתונים שפירסמה באחרונה חברת המחקר SharpBrains, עולה כי שוק התוכנות לאימון המוח הכפיל עצמו בתוך פחות משנתיים. ההצלחה הבולטת בתחום היא של חברת נינטנדו ...

In other words, Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE) and USA Hockey have partnered to bring to market a cognitive simulation game to improve the performance of ice hockey players - similar to what  ACE has been offering to professional and amateur basketball players.

ACE has raised $2.5M, and ACE and USA Hockey have received a joint $800k development grant from the BIRD Foundation for the co-development of a training system for Ice Hockey players. (The article mentions SharpBrains' Market Report as a sign of how the market is growing, since we cover ACE).

For more context on cognitive simulations, you will enjoy this Interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher:

Alvaro Fernandez: Tell us a bit about your overall research interests.

Daniel Gopher: My main interest has been how to expand the limits of human attention, information processing and response capabilities which are critical in complex, real-time decision-making, high-demand tasks such as flying a military jet or playing professional basketball. Using a tennis analogy, my goal has been, and is, how to help develop many “Wimbledon”-like champions. Each with their own styles, but performing to their maximum capacity to succeed in their environments.

What research over the last 15-20 years has shown is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically. And Continue Reading »

I have fallen behind on answering a few excellent recent comments -on cognitive training overall, Posit Science and Alzheimer's Australia, gerontology and the brain, the value of videogames-, so let me address them here:

1) Nicks says (Brain Fitness Programs For Seniors Housing, Healthcare and Insurance Providers: Evaluation Checklist)

"This report is interesting and it addresses many very important questions that cognitive neuropsychologists, such as myself have. I feel that many of the products on the market now make claims which are generally unsubstantiated.

I find it concerning that many of these programmes have been marketed to target older adults in particular without making any specific statement on whether the activities are beneficial and have been supported with empirical research.

i have recently conducted a cognitive intervention study which used a large array of outcome measures which focus on Continue Reading »

Insurance company Allstate and brain fitness software developer Posit Science just announced (see press release Protecting Pennsylvania Drivers, One Brain at a Time) a very intelligent initiative:

Video exercises aid driving skills (Chicago Tribune)

-"Allstate, which called the Posit program "potentially the next big breakthrough in automobile safety," said it expects its software exercises to reduce risky driving maneuvers by up to 40 percent and improve stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when traveling at 55 miles per hour."

-"We'll look to see whether over the next six to nine months there will be a reduction in" the number of accidents between the group participating in the video exercises and those sitting out, said Tom Warden, assistant vice president of Allstate's research and planning center.

I am fortunate to interview Tom Warden, Assistant Vice President and Leader of Allstate’s Research and Planning Center, based in Menlo Park, California.

Alvaro Fernandez: Tom, thank you for your time. Can you please explain the context behind this new initiative that you just announced?

Tom Warden: Our research center is constantly looking for new ideas to improve the driving behavior of drivers of all ages. Recently we have paid extra emphasis on ways to improve the safety of older drivers.

Let me provide some background here. Allstate, as a company, has always been one of the pioneers in helping to introduce new safety measures. For example, we were among the pioneers in the 60s to advocate for mandatory use of seating belts, given research studies on the benefits for drivers and passengers alike. More recently, we helped lobby for wider adoption of airbags, an effective but expensive way of protection that only became mainstream when manufacturers were required to include them.

Let's talk now about your agreement with Posit Science. What will happen over the next months?

The first thing we are doing is to conduct a research study to analyze the real-life impact of Posit Science InSight, a computer-based cognitive training program, on accident rates. We know that as drivers get older Continue Reading »

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Quick, Are videogames good or bad?

That's an impossible question. Good or bad for what? What  specific games are we talking about? More importantly, what are they substituting for, given time is a limited resource?  Contributor Jeremy Adam Smith, managing director of Greater Good magazine, offers an in-depth review on the trade-offs videogames present in: Playing the Blame Game.

News Round-Up

Math Innovation in UK Schools: a recent (and unpublished) study seems to support the potential role for "Serious Games" in education. Learning and Teaching Scotland reports significant improvements in pupils' concentration and behavior, on top of math skills, after using Nintendo Brain Training game.

A round-up of interested news during the month:

1) Training Young Brains to Behave (New York Times)

2) Head Games (OpEd in New York Times)

3) Will Gerontology recognize the Brain? (American Society on Aging event)

4) Brain function gets a boost from walking (Los Angeles Times)

5) An idea whose time has (finally) come (McKnight's Long Term Care News)

6) Train your brain (Financial Times Germany)

7) Toman auge ejercicios que adiestran la mente (Milenio, Mexico)

8) Trois nouvelles études IDATE : Serious Games (Publi-News, France)

Links and commentary below.  Continue Reading »