It may sound a little goofy upon first hearing, but doctors love the Wii. While this has been reported before here and there, it is news just how much doctors are falling in love with Nintendo’s little-console-that-could. In the case of one physical therapist, he is already using it in ten percent of patients and intends to increase that number.

CarePartners outpatient clinic in South Asheville, North Carolina is one of those facilities currently embracing the Wii. Physical therapist Dave Beijer said the benefit of the Wii is that it distracts patients from their particular problem. In reference to one woman in particular, Beijer said, “These are things, that if I asked her to do on her own without the distraction, she would hold back. She has to put it all together without doing a lot of thinking about the individual movements.”

What does this mean for the future of medicine? Will videogames be used more and more? In the case of physical therapy, games simply make sense. As noted, this isn’t exactly new. Physical therapists have in the past prescribed time with video games to patients who had suffered injuries tot eh hands or lost some motor control. The benefits of someone with such conditions playing with a joystick are obvious. What is less obvious is the long term commitment from healthcare professionals to this new manner of treatment.

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