The Healing Blade–Magic-style Card Game That Teaches Med. Students About Infectious Disease

Courtesy of the American Medical News website comes the story of The Healing Blade, a (collectible? non-collectible?) card game that, through play, teaches budding Med students the ins and outs of infectious disease. It was created by two doctors, Francis Kong and Arun Mathews, who founded the game company Nerdcore Learning (more on their extremely magnanimous business philosophy below).

So here’s the trailer they have on the site right now. Note: it’s big on atmosphere and light on information about gameplay:

In case you missed it in the video (or didn’t feel like watching it), in the game you play as either an Apothecary or a Lord of Pestilence (my guess is that each player will choose one, but it might be possible [and, from a game perspective, more interesting] to have both players choose the same side). The goal seems to be, just like in other CCGs, to beat your opponent through better card management. The upshot here isn’t some interesting new twist on the (well-mined) genre of CCGs, but that playing the game teaches you which infectious diseases are vulnerable to which antibodies.

For instance, if you happen to be battling a Lord of Pestilence, and that Lord of Pestilence plays a “Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum)” on you, well, I hope you have a penicillin card to play, else the Lord has just given you syphilis. As you can see from the card below, the “V” seems to indicate what treatment options Lady Pox here would be vulnerable to, whereas “D” (“Description” probably) gives a short, colorful review of symptoms.

N.B. I do worry, slightly, about the male subtext here: what, only male and lesbian warriors get the pox? A small detail, but the semiotics of the game seem to me important beyond just political correctness; they might create misleading subtexts for the diseases and treatments they characterize. So be careful with your text and art, fellas!

Now I know that there haven’t been yet triple-blind, quadruple-deaf studies to prove the efficacy of this method, but I have no doubt whatsoever that this could work as a means to teach med-students this information. If you have ever known any hardcore, mediumcore, or recovering Magic: the Gathering player, you know that those folks know every scintilla of information about the cards — including good cards to combo with them, errata published years ago and absorbed into later editions, and a whole internal vocabulary of powers (doublestrike, phasing, shadow, haste, etc. ad infinitum). But, just as in any game, Magic is compelling because it has superb gameplay, and it is that desire to play that keeps players coming to play again and thereby accidentally learning the game’s recondite argot. If Healing Blade isn’t a great game, it might not work as a teaching tool.

Without having yet played Healing Blade, I am cautiously optimistic about its chances of being a good game. I have three main reasons why. First, it is modifying an existing and proven set of game mechanics: those of the CCG. That means that they do not have to invent compelling mechanics — which is extremely hard to do — but merely keep from ruining the ones that already exist. Second, it’s obvious that the good doctors are geeks and gamers. They know games and the importance of good design, as one of their blog posts on that very topic demonstrates. Third, the art of the game is of professional quality. They’ve thrown a not-insignifant about of money and effort into making this a successful game. These three reasons, added together, don’t guarantee a good game, but they raise my hopes to the level of “plausible.” And honestly, given that even the best game houses put out real stinkers (remember Hecatomb?), “plausible” seems a pretty high plateau to reach for a brand-new company.

And we should also remember that, because this is a serious game, its target audience will come with a built-in motivation for playing: finishing med-school. If the game isn’t flawed, is at least moderately amusing, and proves to be an excellent study tool, then basically the boys at Nerdcore will have found an alternate win-condition for their game business.

But in fact, they already have. They have created a business that does not have the end-goal of generating a profit, but of generating funds to donate to a worthy cause. This is a concept that Dr. Mathews, in his interview with American Medical News, identifies as “social entrepreneurship,” which, as the article explains:

[are businesses which] are created for the purpose of raising money for causes the founders support, as well as using the business as a means of promoting a certain social principle.

In the case of Nerdcore Learning, that principle is medical education. Its signature product, a strategy card game called “The Healing Blade,” is meant to be used as a tool to help medical students learn about infectious diseases.

The money Nerdcore raises by selling the game goes toward an organization Dr. Mathews created called HOPE, Hospital-based Online Pediatric Environment, which provides video game consoles to pediatric hospitals. (Dr. Mathews has written research articles on the effectiveness of the use of gaming by pediatric patients as a means to increase self-esteem and decrease isolation.) Other charities may be added.

There’s not much more that Drs. Mathews and Kong could do right in creating this game; from where I’m standing, every aspect of the game and the business behind it is uncloudedly altruistic. Here’s hoping that the game is as good as everything else about Nerdcore Games.

P.S. The game was released in March and apparently can be bought through Amazon, but Amazon’s saying that they have no such product right now. Hope The Healing Blade is back on sale soon.

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[...] we’re not completely absolved here, as Carlso Hernandez magnificently iterates: N.B. I do worry, slightly, about the male-subtext here: what, only male and lesbian warriors get [...]

June 6th, 2010

On Sexuality and the Healing Blade

Thanks so much for your note, Dr. Mathews! And apologies for misspelling your name; I am correcting forthwith. Now, any word when I’ll be able to buy the game?

May 30th, 2010

Carlos

Carlos, you are right on the money with your analysis. We literally had a facepalm moment after reading your post, and are endeavoring to ‘adjust’ our art to reflect a more balanced view of the issues regarding sexually transmitted diseases. We were so impressed by your words, that they’ll be the focal point of an upcoming post on our blog. Hats off sir – Consider us fans. Arun

May 29th, 2010

Arun Mathews