MARIA: an agent driven simulation for a web based serious game devoted to renew education processes in health care

The paper proposes an innovative approach for applying Serious Games concepts in developing a new generation of agent driven models devoted to support and renew the educational processes in Health Care. This research is devoted to develop new models of virtual humans to be used as patients in a distributed simulation game together with students to teach them concepts related to the continuous care of patients; the research goal is to create a strong relationship between medical doctor students and their set of personal virtual patients, driven by intelligent agents. By following this approach, it is possible to reproduce the patient life cycles and teach students on subjects such as pathology evolution, preventive actions, symptoms identification and human relationships. MARIA (Model for Advanced and Realistic patient simulation driven by Intelligent Agents) is the solution developed by the authors and it has to be regarded as an innovation in the educational programs for health students enabled by new technologies.