HARTFORD, Conn., May 03, 2011 - Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Mindbloom today announced a collaboration that will offer Aetna members an enhanced version of Mindbloom's Life GameTM, an online social game for personal wellness. Starting this fall, Aetna members will have access to a new engagement model that uses the science behind social gaming - a unique blend of technology, art and behavioral psychology - to engage people in achieving personal health and wellness goals.
"Considering that Americans are spending over $200 billion a year on healthy living products and services, but the rates of chronic health conditions and obesity continue to rise, the time is right for a new approach to engaging people in achieving better overall health," said Kyra Bobinet, MD, MPH, medical director of health and wellness innovation at Aetna. "We think the Mindbloom Life Game will provide a fun, rewarding and effective way for Aetna's members to make lasting improvements in their physical and emotional well-being."
Mindbloom is a Seattle-based social media company and the creator of the online Life Game, a personalized wellness application that inspires and helps people to live healthier, more balanced lives. The Life Game helps people focus on many areas of life including: health, spirituality, relationships, leisure, lifestyle, finances, creativity and career. Mindbloom's players grow and maintain a virtual "life tree" and a forest of their family and friends, earn virtual rewards and most importantly, make progress in their real lives. For an overview of the Life Game, visit www.mindbloom.com/aetna. The Aetna collaboration will involve a significant enhancement to the Life Game as well as new mobile features.
"Most of us recognize the value of maintaining healthy, balanced lives yet we continually fail to make healthy behaviors a consistent priority. It seems the motivation is there but we can all use a little nudge," explains Mindbloom's CEO, Brent Poole. "By incorporating social networking, multimedia, a virtual rewards system and psychology-based gaming mechanics - and making it all accessible through mobile phones, email and social media channels - Mindbloom is bringing the missing ingredient of personal engagement to the wellness equation."
Mindbloom's social gaming expertise complements Aetna's full suite of health and wellness programs, which are designed to help people achieve better overall health. For more information about Aetna's programs click here. An online demo of the Mindbloom platform and the Life Game is available to reporters who request it.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 33.8 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com. To learn more about Aetna's innovative online tools, visit www.aetnatools.com.
About Mindbloom
Mindbloom, Inc. is a Seattle-based social media company that utilizes the science behind social gaming - a blend of technology, art and behavioral psychology - to make self-directed personal achievement highly engaging and actionable. Founded in 2008, the company is the creator of the Life GameTM a fun, simple and rewarding way for people to improve the quality of their life. Mindbloom offers a free-to-play version that allows the player to "earn" their way through the experience, sharing with friends and family via social channels, as well as a professional version through which experts and enterprises are able to drive engagement and participation in their wellness programs and initiatives by leveraging a gamified experience. The Mindbloom team is made up of award-winning developers, producers and leaders from Amazon.com, Seattle game studio Monolith Productions and interactive design firm, Ingram Labs. For more information, please visit www.mindbloom.com.