An Interview with Emre Ertekin on Healthcare Gamification: Shaping the Future of Gamification in R&D

We interviewed Emre Ertekin, our Game Developer, to explore game design in healthcare. Ertekin explained that healthcare gamification turns patients into active participants in their well-being journey by enhancing motivation and treatment adherence. He also expressed the role of this technology in Tiga Healthcare Technologies’ R&D projects. 

Here’s the interview: 

1. Healthcare gamification has gained significant attention in recent years. Why is this technology drawing interest? 

One of the main reasons gamification is gaining attention in healthcare is that traditional methods are no longer effective at creating lasting behavior change in modern, fast-paced urban life. These approaches often fail not because people lack information, but because the behaviors they try to promote are difficult to sustain over time.  

Most people already know what they should do to stay healthy, yet they either do not start or do not continue. Gamification addresses this gap by focusing on motivation and adherence, pulling users who remain outside the system into active participation.  

From this perspective, gamification is not about making healthcare ‘fun’, but about bridging the gap between behavioral science and health practices. The growing number of successful applications, ranging from physiotherapy to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment, clearly demonstrates the value of this collaboration. 

2. Beyond points and badges, how do you approach gamification as a system design methodology within healthcare-focused R&D projects? 

Our primary goal in gamification is to design a meaningful objective and allow the player to progress toward it in a controlled and intentional way. Instead of trapping users in a purely mechanical reward loop, we aim to guide them along a meaningful path and make that journey enjoyable.  

This approach helps players maintain a sense of control while progressing, without ever feeling lost, disconnected, or stuck in an empty system. Every step of the experience is designed to provide clarity and purpose.  

All of our gamified projects are built on this core design loop, which serves as the backbone of our system design approach in healthcare-focused R&D. 

3. When designing gamified features, what helps you decide which game elements are most effective in supporting healthy behaviors and long-term engagement? 

This is where the fact that game design is more of art than science becomes most visible. When it comes to selecting game mechanics and aligning them with context, our approach is largely intuitive. Once user data helps us outline the general profile, the core problem usually becomes clear.  

From that point on, we approach the problem through a gamification lens, guided by experience and design intuition. We design with the understanding that not every solution fits every physical or mental condition, and that different social profiles respond very differently to the same mechanics.  

Ultimately, it is not the strength of individual game elements that leads to success, but their alignment with the problem and the context in which they are applied. 

4. What are the main technical or regulatory constraints you face when implementing gamification in healthcare R&D projects, and how do these shape your design decisions? 

When working in this field, it is essential to remember that healthcare always comes before games. Data privacy and international regulations such as KVKK and HIPAA define the boundaries of what can and cannot be designed.  

Incorrect incentives and the risk of encouraging unhealthy or unintended behaviors are among the most critical challenges we face, which is why we implement multiple layers of safeguards. In addition, technical limitations such as sensor inaccuracies, delays in real-time data transmission, and user-specific misuse introduce further complexity into the system.  

In the end, the quality of our work is not defined by design freedom, but by the responsibility we carry toward the user’s health. 

5. Could you share some concrete examples from Tiga’s R&D projects where game development approaches have positively influenced user engagement or user health behaviors? 

At Tiga, we actively apply game development principles to increase long-term user engagement and support positive health behavior change. 

One of our core R&D projects is Mobithera, a digital physical rehabilitation platform designed to improve exercise adherence and correctness in home-based physiotherapy. In Mobithera, gamification elements such as real-time feedback, progress visualization, goal completion, and performance-based motivation are used to encourage patients to complete their prescribed exercises consistently and correctly. These mechanisms play a key role in sustaining user engagement throughout rehabilitation programs. 

Alongside Mobithera, Tiga has been exploring the use of gamification to influence health behaviors through another R&D initiative: ExerNeck. ExerNeck is a gamified exercise application focused on preventing and reducing neck-related problems among office workers and other sedentary professionals. 

The application leverages gamification to make neck exercises more engaging and enjoyable, increasing user motivation and adherence to regular preventive movements. Through features such as personalized exercise plans, adaptive difficulty adjustment, and interactive gamified experiences, ExerNeck transforms otherwise repetitive exercises into short, engaging interaction cycles. This structure fits naturally into users’ daily routines and supports consistency in preventive exercise habits. 

Across both projects, gamification is used not as a superficial engagement layer but as a core design principle to support sustained participation, encourage healthy behavior patterns, and improve long-term user retention. 

6. What trends do you expect in the future of interactive and game-based approaches in healthcare, particularly considering the integration of emerging technologies like AI and virtual reality? 

Software technologies are evolving at a very fast pace. While game production tools benefit greatly from this acceleration, we see far less radical change on the player side of the experience. Players do not necessarily want a different game; they want the same feeling, presented differently.  

For this reason, our future perspective focuses less on making systems ‘smarter’ and more on making them more adaptive. Artificial intelligence, which is likely to dominate both the present and near future, already plays an important role in our gamification projects. AI enables adaptive difficulty, contextual guidance, and highly personalized experiences that can be integrated naturally into healthcare-focused gamified systems.  

As VR and AR devices become more accessible and usable, we expect their application in gamification to expand significantly. These technologies allow for safe simulation environments, increased empathy, and more immersive experiences, particularly valuable in healthcare contexts.  

At the same time, digital fatigue and the need to redefine ethical boundaries in modern society present foreseeable risks. When discussing future trends, we believe it is essential to consider not only technological potential but also these human and ethical limitations.

Key Points of the Interview 

• Behavior Change through Meaningful Paths: Instead of mechanical reward loops, gamification in healthcare should bridge the gap between behavioral science and real-world health practices. The focus is on designing a meaningful objective that provides patients with a clear sense of progression and control over their own recovery journey. This ensures that users stay engaged with difficult treatments.  

• Responsibility and Safety as Design Boundaries: In healthcare R&D, patient well-being always takes precedence over game mechanics and design freedom. Developers must prioritize national and international regulations such as HIPAA and KVKK. Regulatory compliance is therefore a fundamental component of responsible healthcare innovation. 

• The Impact of AI, VR, and AR: Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality have the power of making healthcare applications more adaptive, immersive, and personalized. For instance, AI can provide real-time difficulty adjustments and contextual guidance, while VR and AR can offer safe environments for simulation.  

This informative interview with Emre Ertekin sheds light on the critical aspects of integrating gamification into healthcare practices. Ertekin’s words show that successful integration is based on the balance between engaging game elements and adherence to ethical considerations and patient safety protocols. 

Let’s shape the future together, as always!