How an Endoscope Became a Game Controller — Live at Night of the Nerds
Games are powerful tools for learning. Few would argue otherwise. What's less obvious is how far this goes, even into fields like endoscopic surgery, where precision matters most. 🎮🔬
That's the idea behind GetPlaying: by turning an endoscope into a game controller, we've built an interactive training platform where clinicians practice hand-eye coordination and instrument control before it ever touches a patient.
A few weeks ago, at Night of the Nerds | Futurebites, Games for Health brought this collaborative project of ours on stage, showing the next generation just how far "just a game" can go.
From Controller to Instrument
At its core, GetPlaying takes something clinicians already need to master, fine motor control with an endoscope, and reframes it as gameplay. The same skills that make someone good at a video game (hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, controlled precision under pressure) turn out to be exactly what surgical training needs. So instead of building a simulator that feels like a game, we built one that is one, using a real instrument as the controller.
Why It Matters
Surgical training is expensive, slow, and high-stakes by nature, mistakes have to happen somewhere before they stop happening in the OR. Platforms like GetPlaying give clinicians a way to build muscle memory and confidence in a low-risk environment, while making the learning curve genuinely engaging rather than purely clinical.
It's also a good reminder that "gamification" isn't a buzzword tacked onto training, done right, it's a legitimate methodology with real stakes behind it.
On Stage at Night of the Nerds
Having Games for Health showcase GetPlaying at Night of the Nerds put the project in front of exactly the audience that should see it: students, young engineers, and future clinicians curious about where healthcare and technology meet. It's one thing to build a platform like this in the lab, it's another to watch it spark that reaction live, on stage, in front of the people who'll be building the next version of it.
Proof that play and precision aren't opposites, sometimes, one is just training for the other.
About the Parties
Getinge
Getinge is a global medical technology company specialising in surgical workflows, intensive care, and life science. The Vasoview Hemopro 2 is their latest generation EVH system, used in coronary artery bypass graft surgery in hospitals worldwide.
Games For Health
Games For Health is a Dutch organisation at the intersection of gaming and healthcare, developing serious game applications that make medical training, rehabilitation, and health education more effective and accessible.
Game Tailors
Game Tailors is a game development studio specialising in serious games, interactive experiences designed with purpose, from training simulations to educational tools.
SPINNOV
SPINNOV is an end-to-end IoT and connected product engineering company based in Veldhoven, in the heart of the Dutch Brainport region. From electronics design and embedded software to cloud platforms and UX, SPINNOV covers the full technical stack needed to bring intelligent, connected products to life, across MedTech, AgriTech, SportsTech, and beyond.
For further questions, please contact:
Chris Heger
SPINNOV
Email: c.heger@spinnov.com