Innovation: Gamification as driver for early mobilization post surgery

This year UX Designer Pilar Córdova, EG, attends the CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction.

At the prestigious conference Pilar Córdova will present the study Reimagining Recovery: A Patient-Centred In-Hospital Intervention to Motivate Early Mobilisation Post-Surgery, made together with Lucía Montesinos, Vera Engsberg, and Kevin Doherty as Master's Thesis at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in collaboration with a major Danish university hospital in CPH.

- I'm really thrilled to share our study and the findings at the conference, says Pilar Córdova.

The study was selected among more than 2000 submissions from all over the world to be showcased at the conference, that embraces the theme of Ikigai, a Japanese concept referring to what gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living.


Mobilisation starts too late

The study addresses the fact that hospitalised patients spend most of their time inactive, even though early mobilisation has been proven to significantly improve recovery and rehabilitation.

- Each patient is different and has their own needs, so the challenge in our research was to identify the most common barriers to physical activity, to make sure we were addressing the right problem, she explains.

Some of the key findings of the study is:

• Hospitalised patients often feel uninspired and rely on external factors, like hospital staff, for motivation to move
• Many patients have misconceptions about physical activity, setting unrealistic goals, like walking, without realising light movements are sufficient
• The hospital environment plays a key role; staff are often unable to prioritise mobilisation, and facilities often don’t encourage activity
• Physical activity assessment is usually ad hoc, lacking standardised methods to track progress, which impacts patients’ sense of competence

- Nurses try to motivate patients, but they do not have the time to support and follow up with each individual. Physiotherapists, on the other hand, focus on assessing the need for assistive devices such as canes and wheelchairs, and on providing training plans. However, this is not enough to motivate early mobilisation after surgery, and as a result, rehabilitation often starts too late in the process, says Pilar Córdova.

Gamification as a motivation driver

To solve the problem Pilar Córdova and her colleagues tried to find a way to help motivate the patients to start early mobilization with minimal assistance.

As a result, they invented Kinetip, a web-based solution that utilizes gesture interaction to promote physical activity among hospitalised patients.

By integrating a hand tracking model, Kinetip encompasses various games that require users to move their upper body, thereby engaging in physical activity.

One of the key games implemented in Kinetip is a word puzzle game inspired by Wordle, where users guess random words within a fixed number of attempts by drawing each letter with their arms and hands.

👀 Watch this demo of Kinetip


The study took place at major Danish university hospital, where a total of 54 patients, nurses, and physiotherapists were involved throughout the process — from the initial research phase, which included several interviews, to the solution development phase, where the concept was tested with real users in each iteration.

Afterward the prototype was evaluated to explore its feasibility in motivating in-hospital physical activity.

- After using Kinetip, patients completed a questionnaire. The results showed that patients were motivated by the fun and challenge of the activity but felt less competent as pressure increased. So, while there are signs of intrinsic motivation, further studies are needed.

We however, showed a way to support the patients and the hospital professionals in motivating the patients to start early mobilization and I hope that our finding will be carried on and discussed properly at the CHI Conference, says Pilar Córdova with great expectations:

- It's my first time in Japan and my first time at a major international conference for innovation, so I'm really looking forward to present our study, says Pilar Córdova, EG.

CHI 2025 takes place in Yokohama, Japan, in Yokohama from the 26th April to the 1st of May 2025.

Watch her video presentation for the CHI Conference 2025 or download the factsheet.