Using Technology to Influence Health Behaviour Change

December 2015 Webinar co-hosted by Health Promotion Ontario

In this session you will learn about how the innovative use of mobile applications and gaming can be used to motivate and support behaviour change. You will learn about the development of an evidence-informed and trademarked smoking cessation smartphone application – Crush the Crave - and an interactive video game, PlayForward: Elm City Stories, that incorporates evidence-based concepts from prominent behaviour change theories to reduce risk behaviors in minority youth.

Presenters
Dr. Bruce Baskerville is a Senior Scientist at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact at the University of Waterloo. He has extensive experience in program evaluation and applied health research having been a senior manager responsible for integrated planning, performance measurement and evaluation practice with the federal government. Dr. Baskerville currently specializes in tobacco control, including the development, implementation and evaluation of new smoking cessation interventions or innovations to existing smoking cessation interventions. This includes work to produce an evidence-informed and trademarked smoking cessation smartphone application – Crush the Crave™.

Dr. Kimberly Hieftje is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is currently involved in the development and testing of several health behaviour change videogames. Dr. Hieftje’s research interests primarily focus on health promotion and behaviour change through the use of video games. She is the Project Director for a five-year NIH grant that focuses on the development and evaluation of an interactive video game, PlayForward: Elm City Stories, with the goal of reducing risk behaviours in minority youth. Dr. Hieftje is actively involved in the play2PREVENT lab and has published several articles on the topic of developing serious video games.