Interactive Media Prototype: Proposal

Savanna Benson
EDT 180D

1. Objective
This application gives people insight into what it is like to be a doctor in an Emergency Room.
This simulator will include prioritizing patients, treating specific conditions, and performing
operations when necessary. This application is supposed to model those used by medical
professionals and medical students. Simulations like these are used to form hospital policies for
medical staff, like nurses and doctors, in addition to administrative positions, like floor manager
or hospital director.
Additionally, this application is important in informing people the causes and symptoms of
certain serious illnesses, like congenital heart disease. It is vitally important that people
understand what certain illnesses look like and when they should seek treatment for their
symptoms. Some people may not recognize serious problems because many symptoms overlap
with those of non-life-threatening problems. This game should caution people to always be safer
when it comes to your health. A family friend of mine visited an emergency room about a year
ago for heart palpitations he thought were due to a panic attack. He actually has an irregular
heartbeat and needs a pacemaker to be completely healthy. Instances like this happen more
frequently than we think, and with this application I would like to encourage people to advocate
for themselves in emergency situations, ask questions of their health care providers, and visit
the doctor when anything in their body seems “off.”

2. Target audience
This application would specifically be helpful in the anatomy or physiology classroom, not only
giving students an idea of what hospitals can look like daily, but it also highlights some key
treatments for common illnesses. Listening to the various symptoms of an allergic reaction is
difficult to understand for some students. Merely hearing about the symptoms makes it difficult
for some students to fathom the various problems associated with an illness. For example, if I
were talking about allergic reactions in a classroom and started talking about angioedema
(swelling of the face, specifically the eyes or mouth), it is hard for students to imagine what this
would look like, what it would feel like, and how it would be treated in an emergency setting.
However, with applications like these, they are put in the doctor’s place, and they can decide the
best course of action for this patient given their history, their overall health, and their pain level.
This application could also be used for medical students to apply their knowledge of human
anatomy without the added pressure of treating a real, sick person. It could allow pre-med
students to experience what hospitals look like and what the repercussions of mistakes in a
hospital can look like. It is fun and entertaining while also being informative, making it perfect
for the classroom environment. I believe it could also help patients in hospitals to understand
some of the complexities going on inside a hospital. Obviously, waiting in an emergency room
waiting room is frustrating and unsettling, but patients need to understand that the doctors are
treating other patients with more serious issues. Someone with an allergic reaction may be
 frustrated about their wait time, but they do not know that doctors are treating a person
suffering a heart attack or helping a child with a major head wound. This application could help
both patients and students understand what hospital staff go through.

3. Project outcomes and benefits

As mentioned above, hospitals can be especially stressful places for both medical staff and
patients. It can be difficult for patients to imagine the stress doctors and nurses undergo in their
12-hour shift. Emergency room doctors see brutal injuries and experience some of the worst
illnesses known to man. While loss is devastating for a family, the doctor must deal with death
almost daily while staying calm and present for the patients’ families. Many medical
professionals have suffered abuse at one time or another throughout their careers. It can either
be a family member acting out due to the loss of a loved one, or it could be an agitated patient
refusing or reacting to a treatment. Either way, the medical professional not only has to deal
with the everyday stresses of working in a hospital, but they also have the added worry of
workplace violence. Games like these, however innocuous they may seem, help people
empathize with health care professionals.
Additionally, this game could help highlight some of the lesser known symptoms for serious
illnesses, like congenital heart failure and other circulatory problems. For example, symptoms of
a heart attack in women presents itself drastically different than it does in men. In men, they
often have severe chest pain, difficulty breathing, numbness in the left arm, and other
stereotypical symptoms of a heart attack. In women, however, the chest pain is often dulled to a
consistent throb, they have stomach problems and indigestion, and they feel dizzy or tired. Many
women ignore these symptoms, assuming they are blasé and not indicative of a larger problem.
This mentality is easy to understand, as many of these symptoms are the same as symptoms felt
during the flu, common colds, and menopause. Understanding the lesser known symptoms of
serious illnesses can save lives, specifically in those at risk for heart failure and stroke.

4. Description of content
This application will use a series of hyperlinks, images, audio clips, and text bubbles to heighten
the game’s realness and instructiveness. To access people’s dialogue, players must click on the
person. This way, the players can dictate what they see and when. Every “wrong” answer will
bring the player to a page saying they have made a mistake and must retry the question to
continue the game. This will also be accompanied by a “womp-womp” sad trumpet sound to
keep players entertained. Whenever they click on the settings tab, an ambulance siren will sound
once, and whenever they click on the “need help?” tab, the game will play a male voice asking,
“how can I help?” When the player wins or completes the game, dramatic success music
designed for video games will play. All these sounds are collected from a creative commons
space, and any credit is linked in the resources page of the game. These sounds are designed to
keep players involved in gameplay and to lighten the intense setting of an emergency room.
Any images in the presentation will help players either empathize with patients or help them
picture what the symptoms would look like in real life. Since no respiratory problems are
incorporated in the game, no auditory cues are necessary, but they would be helpful in the event
of a rewrite or update. The pictures, much like the audio recordings, will be retrieved from a
creative commons’ website.
5. Flowchart
6. Storyboard