Health Games Research is a national program that funds research to advance the innovation and effectiveness of digital games and game technologies intended to improve health. It is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio and is headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

There is both an art and a science to designing health games that are appealing, engaging, and impactful.  Health Games Research provides the science.

We work with creative game designers and artists to integrate well tested principles of learning and health behavior change into games that motivate players to improve their health habits and take better care of their health problems. 
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Research Brief

• Social Connectivity and Anonymity in Health Games by James Watt, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and Affiliate Researcher, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Featured Colleagues

• Michael Levine, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, New York, NY
• Katie Salen, M.F.A., Associate Professor of Design and Technology, Parsons the New School for Design, Director, Institute of Play, and Lead Designer, Quest to Learn, New York, NY

• Listen to the news conference held on November 5, 2009 to announce the grants awarded in our second round of funding.
• Welcome to our nine new grantees who received Health Games Research  funding in 2009.
• In 2008, our first 12 grantees received Health Games Research funding and now their projects are well underway.
• Coming soon to this site - the Health Games Research searchable database! Search for information in the health games field related to games, publications, resources, organizations, and more.
• Health Games Research director Debra Lieberman was awarded a three-year grant from the Alzheimer’s Association and Intel to build and evaluate an innovative online system using Facebook, avatars, and health games to motivate healthy lifestyle choices known to improve cognitive health, for people ages 50 and older.