Program

A preview of what the 2026 program has to offer:

Training Tools & Education

Training healthcare professionals with playful tools that encourage curiosity, experimentation and repetition.

Play, Behavior & Design

The best design practices for playful health innovations.

Experts and researchers share their results and ongoing work.

Digital Healthcare

Transforming healthcare with digital tools: let’s make our healthcare futureproof.

AI x Healthcare

Talk of AI is everywhere, but how can we truly get the most out of AI tools, for the support of both patients and healthcare professionals?

Lectures and workshops on ethical, practical and effective use of AI.

Rehab & Care

Engaging patients long-term in rehabilitation is difficult.

In these lectures and workshops, games, simulations and other playful innovations prove their worth.

Mental Health

Let’s untangle mental healthcare.

What can digital solutions and serious games offer to struggling people, long waiting lists and in preventing difficulties altogether?

Carlo van de Weijer at GFHEU2025

Day 1

9:00 – 10:00

Registration & Coffee

Mainstage

10:00 – 11:00

Plenary Opening

11:00 – 11:15

Coffee Break

Mainstage

11:15 – 12:45

Play Behavior & Design Research

Carla Sílvia Fernandes
Pallium Game: Card Game for Exploring Family Dynamics in Palliative Care

Petra Salobová
Play it Forward: Clinical Implementation in Slovakia

Sophie May
Escaping to Empathy: Using a Simulation Escape Room to Teach Elderly Care Assessment

Christoph Brosius
Designing Collaboration: Facilitating Games and Gamification in Healthcare through the GiG Formats

Cinema 2

11:15 – 12:45

Mental Health

Dylan Arnold
Games for Good: The Intrinsic and Social Determinants of Healthy Gaming

Jitze Orij
Designing Games for Mental Health

William Mooney & Michelle Horton
Empathy and Empowerment in Digital Play: Unlocking Self-Expression and Skill-Building in Neurodiverse Youth

The Tube

11:15 – 12:45

Public Health & Prevention

Paraskevi-Ilektra Seferiadi
Emotional Regulation through the lens of MMORPG raiding: How the player’s experiences matter

Marc-Antoine Schiery
Contemporary Reconstructions of the Social Bond: Religion, Video Games and Work in the Face of Anomie

Cinema 3

11:15 – 12:45

Experienced investors teach you how to better raise funding for your start-up innovation.

Foyer

11:15 – 12:45

Coded Games
Coded Club

12:45 – 14:00

Lunch & Demo Sessions

Mainstage

14.00 – 15.30

(note: Dutch only)

Drie sprekers, drie perspectieven:
patiënt, zorgverlener en hoofd van een IC-afdeling.

Na een inspiratiesessie gaan we aan de slag met een IC-dagboek.

Hoe kan een dagboek bijdragen op jouw afdeling?

Cinema 2

14.00 – 15.30

Training Tools & Education

Emre Mor
The Impact of Digital Gamification on Student Motivation, Course Engagement, and Academic Performance in Psychiatric Nursing Education

The Tube

14.00 – 15.30

Wiley Finch
Embedding the European AI Act the Practical Way for Developing Medical Games/Gamification

Afra Çalık Kuş
The Insider Advantage: Building Healthcare Games as a Nurse-Developer

Sanne Croes
Instant XR Intervention: Leveraging Flash Mobs to Accelerate Rehab Research

Faviola Brugger-Dadis & Vincent L’Honore Naber
Beyond the Hype: AI, Digital Twins, and XR Games Redefining Brain Fitness

Cinema 3

14.00 – 15.30

(note: Dutch only)

Foyer

14.00 – 15.30

Coded Games
Coded Club

15.30 – 15.45

Tea Break

Mainstage

15.45 – 16.45

Keynote Session

16.45 – 17.45

Network Drinks

Day 2

9:00 – 10:00

Registration & Coffee

Mainstage

10:00 – 11:00

Plenary Opening

11:00 – 11:15

Coffee Break

Mainstage

11:15 – 12:45

Cinema 2

11:15 – 12:45

Play Behavior & Design Research

Carla Sílvia Fernandes
“Lockdown Treatment” an Escape Room to Enhance Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare

David Cohen
Transparent Game Design: A Framework for Making Learning, Health, and Rehabilitation Playable Through Commercial Game Design

The Tube

11:15 – 12:45

Mental Health

Emmanuel Streel
Are you Depressed or Understandably Miserable?: A Call for Game Related Initiatives

Ana Gigashvili
If It’s So Simple, Why Didn’t We All “Just Do It”

Stefan Göbel
SG4ChildD: Adaptive Serious Games to Strengthen Emotional Competencies in Children with Depression

Elio Salvadori
Beyond Serious Games: The GAMEON Modding Approach to Skill Generalization for Autistic Youth

Cinema 3

11:15 – 12:45

Workshop

Auditorium

11:15 – 12:45

(note: Dutch only)

Van introductie en bewustwording tot implementatie en opschaling:

Zorgorganisaties vertellen vanuit hun eigen ervaringen.

Waarom lukt de implementatie maar niet, en hoe hebben zij het toch voor elkaar gekregen?

Volledig programma

Foyer

11:15 – 12:45

Coded Games
Coded Club

12:45 – 14:00

Lunch & Demo Sessions

Mainstage

14.00 – 15.30

Design a standardized approach for scaling up and successfully implementing healthcare innovations across multiple healthcare institutions.

Jurriaan van Rijswijk, Games for Health

Cinema 2

14.00 – 15.30

Workshop

The Tube

14.00 – 15.30

Training Tools & Education

Cinema 3

14.00 – 15.30

XR in Health

Auditorium

14.00 – 15.30

(note: Dutch only)

Ontwerp je eigen implementatieproces.

Samen met andere zorgprofessionals ontwerpen we onze eigen, passende strategie, van intake naar implementatie.

We vertalen “Dat werkt niet voor ons” naar “Dit is hoe wij het gaan aanpakken.”

Volledig programma

Foyer

14.00 – 15.30

Coded Games
Coded Club

15.30 – 15.45

Tea Break

Mainstage

15.45 – 16.45

Keynote Session

John Harrison
Closing ceremony

16.45 – 17.45

Network Drinks