Gaming: A Physical Therapy Alternative

Physical therapy entrepreneur, Cosmin Mihaiu, discusses his creation of a new alternative to traditional physical therapy. The alternative is a software that engages patients in interactive and therapeutic games, making physical rehabilitation fun. In this TEDTalk, Mihaiu says, "Patients find physical therapy to be boring, frustrating, confusing and lengthy before seeing results. Patient noncompliance can be as high as 70 percent." Since a majority of patients do not do the required exercises, it takes them much longer to get better than it should. Mihaiu and three of his friends asked themselves, wouldn't it be interesting if patients could play their way to recovery? This encouraged them to design a game. "When designing a game, we speak to physical therapists at first to understand what movements patients need to do. Then we make a video game to give patients simple, motivating objectives to follow," said Mihaiu. The video game allows the user to feel more engaged and confident while letting the physical therapist view the data gathered during the session. Throughout the TEDTalk, Mihaiu shows examples of three different video games, one for kids, adults and seniors. To see the video game and learn more about the benefits of playing games to recover, check out the video below! https://www.ted.com/talks/cosmin_mihaiu_physical_therapy_is_boring_play_a_game_instead/transcript?language=en#t-307474