Gaming聽could help many people monitor their own聽health聽conditions –聽if game companies don鈥檛 get put off by slow processes.
That is the view of Rosemary Kay,聽director聽of Liverpool-based eHealth Cluster, which helps tech SMEs find their way through the complicated worlds of health and social care.
鈥淭here are opportunities for health and social care around gaming but it鈥檚 not the game companies鈥� world and they can鈥檛 understand why everything takes so long,鈥� Kay told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淲hat they do in the gaming world is exactly what we need in some areas of healthcare.
鈥淭here are preventative opportunities there and if you can understand UX and how to influence behaviour you can get people looking after their own condition and understanding it. Serious gaming approaches are creating new opportunities for understanding health conditions.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we鈥檝e had to work to bring both sides together to say ‘there鈥檚 something here for both of you’.
鈥淕aming companies are used to doing a pitch and getting a 鈥榶es’ or ‘no鈥�. With the NHS they say 鈥業 think there鈥檚 something there but we need to go to a committee and look at our budget and talk to this person鈥�.
鈥淭he companies say 鈥榠s this really worth it?鈥� and we say 鈥榶es it鈥檚 not you, it鈥檚 just the way they work鈥�.鈥�
The cluster was set up by a group of tech companies who wanted to get into the sector but found no clear routes to market. It now has over 350 people registered.
鈥淭hey could see lots of opportunities but couldn鈥檛 find the right people to talk to,鈥� Kay said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very much about understanding the world of health and social care. A real issue for SMEs is to understand the route to market.
鈥淭hey would come to us saying 鈥榳e have a great product and want to sell our app to social care commissioners to use in their services鈥�. We鈥檇 say ‘well social care commissioners won鈥檛 buy that because they have no money and they don鈥檛 buy products, they buy services via care providers’.
鈥淲e untangled what sits where and found that companies could spend an awful lot of time talking to the wrong people and even competitors without realising. Not many people understand all three areas 鈥� tech, health and social care.鈥�
The cluster, which is funded on membership fees and special projects, currently only asks public bodies, not SMEs, for membership to avoid pricing anyone out.
鈥淪o far those that get it do really get it. They鈥檙e coming on board slowly,鈥澛燢ay explained.
鈥淵ou get most learning around the people you鈥檝e had to encourage to come in because if you work with a company or public body who says 鈥業 want to do this or that鈥�, it鈥檚 not actually attacking barriers.鈥�
The next barriers that the company wants to attack include getting students straight out of university and tying up with the city鈥檚 other initiatives.
鈥淗ealth and social care isn鈥檛 like a typical tech business 鈥� it鈥檚 not about standard marketing plans and social media, it鈥檚 about navigating red tape,鈥� Kay said.
鈥淪ome tech companies talk to us and then say it鈥檚 not for me. To me that鈥檚 a success rather than wasting time and money.鈥�