Video Game Training May Improve Guideline-Concordant Trauma Triage

THURSDAY, April 23, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- A purpose-driven video game for emergency physicians may improve guideline-concordant trauma triage of seriously injured older adults, according to a study published online April 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Deepika Mohan, M.D., from the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues evaluated whether a purpose-driven video game improves emergency physician adherence to trauma triage guidelines for older adults. The analysis included 800 emergency physicians responsible for the triage of 41,073 Medicare fee-for-service injured patients (aged 65 years and older) at 1,147 non-trauma center hospitals. Participants were randomly assigned to game-based training on a tablet for an initial session of two hours and then a 20-minute session each quarter or usual education.The researchers found that physicians in the game-based training group had a lower proportion of severely injured older adults who were undertriaged (49 percent; 402 of 819) versus the usual education group (57 percent; 527 of 919). There were no significant differences for overtriage or composite outcome."Serious games offer an appealing alternative because they scale easily and require few resources other than the time spent by physicians," the authors write. "Games engage clinicians as partners [and] are unlike the nudge (choice architecture) interventions that seek to manipulate behavior, risk undermining the agency of clinicians, and fail to improve decisions in the absence of the intervention."Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Video Game Training May Improve Guideline-Concordant Trauma Triage

Related Stories