I am throwing in my voice among the throngs of internet bloggers. I’m a physician and I play video games on a regular basis. I play for fun and to wind down at the end of the day. Games have meaning to me and have always been a significant part of my life.
Rather than try to be another video game reviewer or another streamer (does anyone really want to watch me furrow my brow as I send Mario to his death over and over again?) I thought I’d try to do this from the viewpoint of a physician.
I’ve been working as a physician for several years and I love my job. Much of my work is spent guiding families as they navigate their children’s development and social growth. Screen time and video games are becoming a bigger conversation at these visits now that we all carry video game power houses (at least compared to the Game Boy and SNES I grew up with) in our pockets.
It’s easy to assume that parents and grandparents are disconnected from gaming (insert video of some ‘Karen’ screaming at some poor local politician about Grand Theft Auto), but there is also a disconnect with health care providers as well. After I recently gave a hospital wide presentation about video games, that became further apparent. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the look on everyone’s face as I described to them all why Conker’s Bad Fur Day was rated M, despite the cute box cover.
But here is the thing, it is OKAY that these physicians and people everywhere are disconnected from gaming! There is waaaay too much out there for all of us to stay up to date on. It’s why we have specialists in medicine. Pediatricians and family medicine doctors are incredible at preventative care and a broad knowledge of many problems, but likely won’t know extreme details about things such as the surgical timing of congenital heart disease care or how to run ECMO. On the other hand, specialist doctors are trained for complex problems such as these, but may not be up to speed on some aspects of primary care. They all have to work together as a team to care for a patient.
The same goes with parents and families. There’s so much to worry about with your children that oftentimes screens and video games become low priority in the grand scheme of life. I want to help fill that gap and provide reliable information to everyone.
So here we are. As of now, I don’t have much of a plan, but I’ll go over recent entertainment and gaming news, evidence based medicine in relation to video games, discussing/rating new games, and whatever else comes our way. Here we go!
Legal fine print: I am a physician, but with this blog and any writing here I am representing myself. My writing and opinions are my own and do not represent my employers. I do not receive compensation for this, as it’s all for fun for me. Also, I will never share any information concerning any patient or violate HIPPA.
