Xbox: Gaming machine or healthcare platform?

If you thought that the Microsoft Xbox 360 was a gaming machine, like I did, you're a couple of years behind the curve.

I've attended 2 sessions at the Microsoft HUG Tech Forum so far, and both of them included slides that included the Xbox 360 in the Microsoft technology stack that is targeted at healthcare. The Xbox? I was intrigued, so I googled "Xbox healthcare". Here's what I found.

Almost 2 1/2 years ago, Dr. Crounse at Microsoft wrote about how the Xbox can be used to "help cure healthcare woes," based on research being done by Dr. Harold Goldberg. A month earlier, an AP article covered the work that Dr. Goldberg had been doing with the Nintendo Game Cube to encourage young people with diabetes to communicate with their doctors and manage their conditions.

It seems unlikely that Nintendo is interested in making heavy investments into healthcare, Wii Fit notwithstanding. So Microsoft, already generating about $2B in revenue from healthcare, is in an excellent position to leverage the Xbox in the healthcare market, particularly among young patients.

At CES in Las Vegas this year, Cerner demo'd their Cerner Care Console (announced in this press release), which is essentially just a customized Xbox 360. It allows hospital patients to play games, of course, but also provides education, a feedback mechanism, maps, information about the patient's doctors and other care providers, etc.

In my role as Chief Architect at AdvancedMD, it may become important that I get one of these in my office...for research purposes. That realization alone justifies my trip to the Tech Forum!