Nilufar Baghaei’s diabetes game project awarded Health Research Council funding

Nilufar Baghaei – Associate Professor and Acting Head of Computer Science

Congratulations to Nilufar Baghaei, Associate Professor and Acting Head of Computer Science, who was recently awarded a Health Research Council Feasibility Study grant for her mobile game project, aimed at improving diabetes self-management in young people.

This study is a collaboration with the National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI), led by Associate Professor Ralph Maddison. Nilufar is the Unitec Lead Investigator and the team also includes staff members Computer Science Senior Lecturer John Casey and Adjunct Professor Hossein Saffarzadeh, as well as an endocrinologist from Middlemore Hospital, and two Unitec programming students, Scott Maunder and Graham Foote who will develop the 3D game.

This study is a great example of collaboration, with the Unitec team providing the ICT research and the NIHI team’s expertise in diabetes management and in running randomised controlled trials.

In this study, the team utilises their original ‘Diabetic Mario’ game design and applies it to a mobile 3D game. Nilufar and John Casey’s work on this original game prototype was recognised at last year’s Staff Awards, where they won the Chief Executive’s Award – Runner up for their Diabetic Mario project.

The research underway for the mobile platform format aims to impact and support existing services for young adolescents and young adults with type 2 diabetes. Engaging these young people earlier in their life, utilising a more ‘novel’ approach is an important resource to support the long term self-management of diabetes.