Video game maker target teens with cancer
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Cigna Corp. (CI.N) said on Wednesday it will offer HopeLab's "Re-Mission" video game, which lets teens and young adults blast cancer while learning how to improve the odds of beating the disease, free of charge on its Web site.
"'Re-Mission' has demonstrated that video games have the power to help teenagers better adhere to their cancer treatment and embrace key behaviors that improve their health and quality of life," Dr. Glenn Pomerantz, medical director of its CIGNA HealthCare unit, said in a statement.
Teenaged cancer patients can face a unique set of challenges, medical experts said. They are old enough to be responsible for their treatment, but may be too young to understand the potentially deadly consequences of skipping required medications that may make them feel sick, lose their hair, get acne, or gain weight.
Pam Omidyar, a medical researcher married to eBay Inc. (EBAY.O) founder Pierre Omidyar, launched HopeLab in 2001, seeking to improve the health of young people with a mix of good science and fun technology.
HopeLab, a Northern California-based nonprofit organization, teamed with video game developers and animators, cancer experts, cell biologists, psychologists and young patients, seeking to make a high-quality video game that would educate as well as entertain.
The results was "Re-Mission," a teen-rated shooting game featuring a nanobot named Roxxi who roams inside the bodies of fictional cancer patients, destroying cancer cells, battling bacterial infections and managing side effects associated with cancer and cancer treatments.
Since the game's launch early last year, HopeLab said it has delivered 76,000 copies of "Re-Mission" on disc or via download on its Web site (www.re-mission.net).
Cigna's site (www.CIGNA.com/re-mission) will offer the game. Continued...
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