Games for Health

What Games for Health does

Games for Health (trade name of Game Solutions Lab B.V., KvK 69531463) is an Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company that designs and develops serious games and playful digital solutions for the healthcare sector. Its product portfolio comprises nine distinct offerings spanning post-ICU patient diaries (Post-ICU), chronic-illness therapy adherence (Budiyu, Medi & Cate), oncology patient support (Life-Fullness), surgical skills training (Let's Train), citizen-science research gamification (Unmask), self-reflection card games (Play it Forward), healthcare-staff training experiences (Escape Rooms for Healthcare), and AI-driven GP voice automation (Handy). Underlying technology combines behavioral science, game mechanics, and human-centered design; the company applies a proprietary four-step Game Ready Workshop co-creation methodology to scope and prototype each engagement with multidisciplinary teams of 6-8 stakeholders.

The company serves healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance providers, and GP clinics across the Netherlands, with durable partnerships across seven major Dutch hospitals and academic medical centers (Radboudumc, Erasmus MC, UMC Utrecht, Catharina Ziekenhuis, Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis, Máxima MC) plus Zorginstituut Nederland, Health~Holland, and Lymph&Co. Its go-to-market is enterprise field sales with custom quote-based pricing and multi-year contracts; revenue comes from project-based solution development, with one product (Life-Fullness) achieving full reimbursement via ONVZ supplementary health insurance. Games for Health is founder-led by Jurriaan van Rijswijk (Commercial Officer), Sandra van Rijswijk (Director), and Rob Tieben (Creative & Scientific Expert), with no external funding rounds disclosed.

Name

Games for Health

Legal name

Game Solutions Lab B.V.

Website

https://gamesforhealth.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Games for Health designs serious games and playful digital solutions for Dutch healthcare institutions, pharma companies, insurers, and GP clinics, spanning patient diaries, therapy adherence tools, oncology support, surgical training, citizen science, and AI voice automation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Health Serious Games

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000), Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)

akta.pro primary industry

Serious Games & Simulation Studios (Training, Defense, Enterprise) (MPAFAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Care Navigation, Advocacy & Benefits Guidance Platforms (HLALADAJ)

Keywords

• Serious games healthcare
• Digital health solutions
• Patient engagement software
• Playful healthcare platforms
• Behavior change games

Headquarters

HQ city

Eindhoven

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Healthcare Solutions Development: Games for Health develops custom serious games and playful patient solutions for healthcare organizations, pharma companies, and health insurers. The company collaborates directly with partners to tackle complex healthcare challenges through game-based interventions. Revenue appears to come from solution development contracts and potentially licensing of developed products.
2. Life-Fullness Insurance Coverage: Life-Fullness is fully covered by ONVZ supplementary health insurance, indicating a reimbursement-based revenue stream where healthcare solutions are compensated through insurance providers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Games for Health develops serious games and playful digital healthcare solutions that intrinsically motivate healthy behavior change. The company builds a portfolio of standalone products — including patient diaries, digital care buddies, citizen science puzzle games, surgical training games, and an AI voicebot — alongside co-design workshops for healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and health insurers.

Product overview

Games for Health is a serious games and playful healthcare solutions provider offering a portfolio of distinct products designed to motivate healthy, sustainable behavior change. The portfolio includes Post-ICU (a shared digital patient diary), Budiyu (a digital care buddy for chronic patients), Life-Fullness (a holistic cancer patient support tool using the Life House concept), Let's Train (a surgical training video game), Unmask (a citizen science puzzle game for medical research), Play it Forward (a self-reflection card game), Medi & Cate (a therapy adherence puzzle game), Escape rooms for healthcare (experiential training for care providers), and Handy (an AI-driven voicebot for GP assistants). The company also offers a Game Ready Workshop service for co-designing new healthcare solutions. All products apply game mechanics and playful design to healthcare challenges, from patient care to medical training to research acceleration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Post-ICU A personalized digital diary shared between ICU patients, their families, and healthcare teams to bridge the gap between ICU care and recovery, improve communication, and reduce PTSD incidence.
• Budiyu A holistic digital care buddy that adapts to chronic patient needs across personal, social, and practical dimensions, providing motivational support, medication reminders, and care network features to improve therapy adherence.
• Life-Fullness A holistic cancer patient support tool using thematic 'Life House' rooms that help patients organize thoughts, questions, and feelings through personalized online coaching. Fully covered by ONVZ supplementary health insurance in the Netherlands.
• Let's Train A video game combined with a custom-modified endoscope controller that trains surgical skills, allowing students and experienced surgeons to practice without human tissue and reducing training costs.
• Unmask A citizen science puzzle game where players contribute real research data for cancer (lymphoma) studies by identifying microRNA binding places that computer algorithms cannot reliably predict, engaging over 7,700 citizen scientists.
• Play it Forward A five-minute interpretive card game that promotes self-reflection in patients by uncovering life values through abstract imagery and meaningful conversation prompts, supporting cardiovascular recovery and lifestyle maintenance.
• Medi & Cate A collection of daily puzzle games (crosswords, tangrams, sudokus) integrated with medication barcode scanning to promote therapy adherence through gamification.
• Escape Rooms for Healthcare Experiential, playful training sessions designed around fictional client stories to teach healthcare providers person-centered care, observation skills, and empathy through escape room game formats.
• Handy AI Voicebot An AI-driven voicebot that answers patient calls 24/7, handling prescription ordering, appointment scheduling, and general non-medical questions to relieve GP practice assistants.
• Game Ready Workshop A day-long co-creation workshop service that produces a first concept draft and harvest document through a four-step process including multidisciplinary team assembly, needs mapping, impact goal definition, and prototype co-creation for healthcare solutions.

Quantifiable outcome

• >60% decreased incidence of PTSD in ICU patients using shared diary
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Zorginstituut NederlandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerZorginstituut Nederland is listed as a durable partnership. The organization is the Dutch healthcare institute that assesses and advises on quality, accessibility, and affordability of healthcare in the Netherlands.
• RadboudumccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRadboud University Medical Center is listed as a durable partnership. One of the leading academic hospitals in the Netherlands collaborating on healthcare innovation.
• Erasmus MCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerErasmus MC is listed as a durable partnership. One of the largest and most renowned university medical centers in the Netherlands.
• Catharina ZiekenhuiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCatharina Ziekenhuis is listed as a durable partnership. A leading regional hospital in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• Jeroen Bosch ZiekenhuiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis is listed as a durable partnership. A major regional hospital in the Netherlands.
• UMC UtrechtcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUMC Utrecht is listed as a durable partnership. One of the leading university medical centers in the Netherlands focused on innovation in healthcare.
• Máxima MCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMáxima MC is listed as a durable partnership. A regional medical center serving Eindhoven and surrounding areas.
• Lymph&CocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLymph&Co is listed as a durable partnership. A foundation focused on lymphoma research and patient support, relevant to the Unmask citizen science game.
• Health~HollandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHealth~Holland is listed as a durable partnership. The Dutch life sciences & health hotspot that promotes and supports innovation in healthcare.
• SARA RoboticsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSARA Robotics collaborated with Games for Health on a design project. Product Owner Rianne Jurriens provided testimonial praising the Game Ready Workshop process for delivering concrete results in two days.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Omada Health: US-based digital behavior change company focused on diabetes, hypertension, and mental health prevention. Comparable in serving payers/employers with digital therapeutic interventions, though at significantly larger scale and broader portfolio than Games for Health.
• Sword Health: Digital physical therapy and AI care platform selling into employers and health plans. Comparable as a digital-first therapeutic provider with measurable clinical outcomes and payer relationships, though focused specifically on MSK rather than serious-game methodology.
• WellDoc: Established US digital therapeutics company with FDA-cleared chronic disease management platforms (e.g., diabetes). Comparable as a more mature digital health player selling into payers and providers, though broader in scope than serious games specifically.

Direct peers

• Voluntis: Digital therapeutics company (now part of AptarGroup) that develops companion software for patients on specific therapies, including medication adherence. Comparable to Games for Health's Budiyu and Medi & Cate therapy-adherence solutions and its pharma-focused revenue stream.
• Sidekick Health: Iceland/Europe-headquartered digital therapeutics company that uses gamification to drive patient engagement in chronic conditions. Directly comparable to Games for Health's Budiyu, Life-Fullness, and Medi & Cate adherence products and its European payer-pharma business model.
• Ayogo Health: Canada-based health games company building gamified patient engagement and behavior-change apps for chronic care and clinical research. Comparable to Games for Health's combination of playful design, chronic-care focus, and citizen-science research products like Unmask.
• Akili Interactive: US-based digital therapeutics company that develops video game-based cognitive treatments (e.g., EndeavorRx). Closely comparable as a serious-games-for-health company commercializing clinically validated game-based interventions through healthcare and payer channels.
• Happify Health: Digital therapeutics platform using game-like activities to improve mental health and chronic conditions. Comparable to Games for Health's Play it Forward card game and broader portfolio of gamified psychological and behavioral interventions.
• Kaia Health: Europe-based digital therapeutics company offering app-based musculoskeletal and chronic-condition programs with motivational coaching. Comparable as a Europe-headquartered digital health company selling into payers, insurers, and employers for behavior-change outcomes.

Emerging players

• MindMaze: Switzerland-based digital neurotherapeutics company using gamified, AI-driven therapies for stroke, brain injury, and Parkinson's. Comparable to Games for Health's Let's Train surgical-skills product and broader category of game-based clinical training and recovery tools.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/GamesForHealthNL
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/games-for-health
• Instagraminstagram.com/gamesforhealth_nl

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Games for Health