HeartSaver: An Experimental News Game
HeartSaver is an experiment in news game design, built in two days for the April 2013 GEN Editors' Lab Hackathon. Related Story »
Patient monitor
Needs help
Survived
Deceased
HeartSaver 
HeartSaver is an experiment in news game design, built in two days for the April 2013 GEN Editors' Lab Hackathon. IMPORTANT: This is not a definitive study of how distance from a hospital affects survival rates.
How do you save a heart? In New York City, where nearly half a million people suffer from heart disease, surviving a heart attack hinges on both how much time it takes to get to the emergency room, and which ER you go to. Quality of care varies across the city, and according to the American Heart Association, a victim’s chances for survival decrease by up to 10 percent every minute. What are your chances of surviving a heart attack in New York City? Play HeartSaver to find out.
Your mission: Save as many heart attack victims as possible by getting them to the best emergency room in time.
How to play:
#1: As patients appear on the screen, drag them to the nearest hospital.
#2: Different hospitals have different heart attack care ratings.
 |
 |
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| Below Average |
Average | Above Average |
Read our blog post about what we learned building the game.
Congratulations! Twitter Facebook
You saved out of lives, and still need to get to a hospital.
Time and quality of care can really affect a heart attack victim’s chances for survival. You spent an average of minutes getting your patients to the hospital. Once they arrived, their average quality of care was percent.
Think you can do better?
IMPORTANT: This is a two-day hackathon project meant to explore how news games work, and not the results of months of rigorous research, so take things with a grain of salt (actually, you should probably go easy on the salt). If you’re a researcher and can help us understand how these factors affect survival rates, let us know.
Man, this job is tough. Twitter Facebook
You saved out of lives, and still need to get to a hospital.
Time and quality of care can really affect a heart attack victim’s chances for survival. You spent an average of minutes getting your patients to the hospital. Once they arrived, their average quality of care was percent.
Think you can do better?
IMPORTANT: This is a two-day hackathon project meant to explore how news games work, and not the results of months of rigorous research, so take things with a grain of salt (actually, you should probably go easy on the salt). If you’re a researcher and can help us understand how these factors affect survival rates, let us know.
Sources: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, New York State Department of Health, New York City Department of City Planning, Google Directions API; Sound from freesound.org users dream4dreamtheater and esperar; Man designed by Michael McMillan from The Noun Project