About Us

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 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.

Collaboration between creative design teams and researchers in the health games field has generated new health games and game technologies that are compelling and fun to play and that significantly improve players’ health-related behaviors and outcomes.

Research is essential to help identify and validate effective approaches to health game design. Health Games Research now supports 21 grantee research projects nationwide.

Health Games Research is directed by Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., communication researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has been involved for more than 30 years in the research and design of interactive media and games for learning and health. Program funding comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, which supports innovative ideas and projects that may lead to breakthroughs in the future of health and health care.