The University of Southern California Institute for Global Health and Games Institute have collaborated on the development of a game-based global health curriculum. The project has three core instructional goals. First, to develop an interactive tool that teaches core competencies required of global health students, as identified by the American Schools of Public Health. Second, to illustrate the systems nature of global health and not shy away from the multi-leveled complexity that often defines global health challenges. In fulfilling this commitment, the project team built and attempted to integrate a scientific agent-based model to developing a credible, data-driven experience reflective, to the extent possible and appropriate, of real world cause and effect relationships. Third, to increase awareness of specific intervention approaches currently being used and tested to address health concerns.
An initial scenario has been completed focused on maternal health, while the game environment and mechanisms provide the platform to quickly develop more scenarios representing different global health challenges. The audience for the Global Health Response Engine (GHRE) include college- and graduate-level students, instructors, and public health practitioners.