Swann Pichon - Behavioral Sciences, Gamification in Health, Psychology

I am an HES associate professor at the Geneva School of Health Sciences (HES-SO) and an associate research fellow at the Swiss center for affective sciences at the University of Geneva.

My team and I are interested in the potential of mobile health and gamification for augmenting the efficacy and compliance of health interventions for either therapeutic or educational purposes. We address this research at different levels ranging from applied to more fundamental science, using convergent methods from behavioral sciences, computer science and game design, as well as cognitive and affective neuroscience. These interests are reflected in a current FNS project which explores the potential of video games for training attention and mitigating pediatric anxiety. Another interest lies in the utility of serious games for health education. We currently develop a serious game for training healthcare professionnals in chronic wound care (Innosuisse project in collaboration with the company Imito, Sebastian Probst (HEdS, nursing dept) and Guillaume Chanel (UNIGE). Another current line of research we are pursuing with the PhD project of Emma Leavy (PhD fellow nursing dept) and Pr Laurent Gaucher (HEdS, midwifery dept) is in perinatal mental health, in particular how m-health tools and online peer support may help to reduce stigma and encourage care-seeking in women at risk for suffering postpartum depression.

News:

- Sept 2023: Appointed to CARA's Ethics and Safety Commission for a 3-year mandate (Switzerland's Electronic Patient Record CARA)

- October 2023: FNS funding started - Investigating the effect of training attentional control on emotion regulation and pediatric anxiety – A randomized controlled trial

- September 2022: HES-SO funding domaine santé - co-applicant with Laurent Gaucher. This project will aim at evaluating the acceptance and adoption of a mobile app hosting a community of mothers. This feasibility study will also evaluate the adoption and feasibility of a randomized control trial aiming to evaluate the effect of online peer support on well-being in women at risk of developing postpartum depression. 

- July 2022:  Finalist for the 7th Challenge debiopharm-Inartis patient quality of life with Sonali Quantius (Haplocare), Laurent Gaucher and Emma Leavy (HEDS) and the project Haplocare, an application enabling access to peer support during perinatality.

- January 2022: Innosuisse funding - collaboration with the company Imito, co-applicant with Sebastian Probst (HEDS) and Guillaume Chanel (UNIGE). This project aims at working on the development of an deep neural model for allowing the monitoring of chronic wounds, as well as a serious game for chronic wound care education.

- October 2021: you can view the recording of the online symposium organized the 14th Sept. 2021: “The Covid-19 Pandemic – A Digital Health Catalyst”, which aimed at highlighting some of the positive effects that the current pandemic is having on the digitization of healthcare.

- February 2020: Joined the Geneva School of Health Science as an Associate Professor (Haute Ecole de Santé de Genève).

Contact:

swann.pichon [A] hesge.ch