Healthcare Games Diversifier | Global Game Jam 2026 Israel

About

Sheba Hospital, in partnership with Kibbutzim College, is offering a Location Diversifier at GGJ 2026!

Expand your team with doctors, nurses, therapists and collaborate to make games that solve problems in healthcare.

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                        Special prizes and recognition
                    

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                        Exposure to healthcare investment through Sheba ARC
                    

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                        Collaborate with medical professionals
                    

Location

Design School, Kibbutzim College

Shalom Meir Tower, Tel Aviv

Virtual submissions also welcome.

Schedule

Thursday

17:00 Registration & Welcome
17:30 Keynote & Brainstorming
18:00 Team Formation & Planning
19:00 Jamming begins

Friday

Jamming all day

Saturday

15:00 Project Submission
16:00 Closing Event

What to Bring

Laptop, tablet, power strip. Outlets available but limited.

Food

Light breakfast and Friday pizza provided. Bring your own food too. Fridge & microwave on site. Many food options nearby.

Partners

Problem Statements

Real healthcare challenges from Sheba clinicians. Pick one and build something amazing.

Pediatric Mental Health

Game-Based Behavioral Observation

Design games that capture observable behavior patterns to help clinicians understand how kids respond to challenge, uncertainty, and change.

Dr. Hen Meltzer, Sheba Hospital AI Literacy

Making AI Less of a Black Box for Doctors

Help clinicians build an intuitive mental model of how AI works, including its strengths, limits, and failure modes, through interactive play.

Shifra Samber, CHEO Research Institute Pediatric Autism Care

Gameplay as Reward

Design games where therapeutic progress unlocks play, using gameplay itself as a motivating, personalized reward system for children with autism.

Dr. Tal Shilton, Sheba Pediatric Psychiatry Pediatric Oncology

Helping Kids Swallow Pills

Build games that teach pill-swallowing as a skill, reduce anxiety, and reward consistency. Turn one of the hardest moments of the day into something achievable.

Dr. Michal Singer, Sheba Pediatric Oncology Autism Spectrum

Teaching Social Skills Through Games

Design cooperative games that help kids on the autism spectrum practice social interaction, using play as a bridge for connection, expression, and communication.

Dr. Omer Bar Yosef, Sheba Hospital Immersive Rehab • Track 1

Physical & Cognitive Rehabilitation Games

Design room-scale games where movement is input, space is the interface, and the body is the controller. Target balance, coordination, memory, and more.

Maya Ehrlich & Ilanit Nit, Sheba Rehabilitation Immersive Rehab • Track 2

Tools for Therapists to Create Custom Scenarios

Build fast, flexible tools that let therapists tailor immersive therapy to each patient: swap environments, adjust difficulty, and personalize content.

Maya Ehrlich & Ilanit Nit, Sheba Rehabilitation Immersive Rehab • Track 3

3D / Full-Body Tracking Interactions

Push beyond touchscreen-style interaction with designs that respond to stance, reach, balance, and multi-limb coordination in 3D space.

Maya Ehrlich & Ilanit Nit, Sheba Rehabilitation Mental Health

Games to Support PTSD Treatment

Design games that help patients stick with proven therapeutic practices: grounding, journaling, structured routines. Make adherence easier.

TBD, Sheba Hospital

Games for Healthcare

Examples of how games are transforming medicine:

Games for Doctors

Games can be certified for CME (Continued Medical Education) credit in the US.

CME is a $4B market in the US alone

Games for Patients

Help patients understand what they need to, at their own pace.

Drastically improve the patient experience

Digital Therapeutics

The FDA will approve games that treat disease (ADHD, PTSD, etc.)

Doctors can prescribe them, insurance will pay

Synthetic Data

Use game tools to create AI training data that fills in the gaps.

Make better, less biased AI systems

Games for Rehab

Help patients recover from traumatic injury or surgery.

Make treatments and therapy rewarding and fun

Behavior Change

Modify bad habits and encourage good ones.

Employers, governments, and insurers will pay

Learn More

Talks and videos on games in healthcare:

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Submit Your Game

Submissions will open during the jam. Physical participants, virtual participants, and teams from other GGJ sites in Israel are all welcome to submit.

Contact Us

Questions about the Healthcare Games Diversifier? Get in touch.

Healthcare Games