Jennifer German has a video game plan that she believes will help teach a new generation of medical students

By Chuck Carlson

A Christmas present for one of her kids gave Jennifer German an idea she believes will help change the future of medical school education.

The gift in 2023 was the video game “Disney Dreamlight Valley,” a life simulation adventure similar to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series. As a long-time gamer, she borrowed it from her child and started playing it. Before long, an idea took root: perhaps a video game concept could help enhance and even improve how medical schools teach a new and diverse generation of students.

She had some experience with this subject after spending three and a half years pursuing a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree at Michigan State University.

“I was struggling, and I was seeing friends struggle,” she said. “Professors would give us information, and we were told to interact with it. We’d ask, ‘How do you do that?’ and the professors would say, “Figure it out.’”

It was a process that did not make sense to her.

“Medical school does not teach the way students learn,” she said. “Generation Z is in graduate school now, and they are digital natives while schools are still handing out textbooks. The generations growing up now are not taking notes. They’re interacting with their technology. That’s what students in medical school need, and I have the ability to make it.”

Her pursuit of a medical degree came years after graduating in 2000 from Harvard University with a degree in engineering, following a career as a software engineer, first in Boston and then in Detroit.

After volunteering as an emergency medical technician in Livonia, she rediscovered her love of medicine and decided to go to medical school.

But “life things” took over, and the single mother of two kids fell behind in her studies. With another two years left to complete and knowing she had hospital rotations in order to graduate within the allowable six years, she sensed it wasn’t going to work out.

“I realized if I was on (hospital) rotation and anything happened to my children, I would have to leave rotation, and that’s an automatic failure,” she said. “I was looking at a lot of luck and prayer and stress to finish, and do I throw more money and time at this knowing it could be taken away at any moment?"

So, she stepped away and decided to pursue a Master of Basic Medical Science at MSU.

That’s where the Christmas video game gift comes in.

“I spent 19 years as a software developer, and I’ve spent my life playing video games,” German said. “I’ve loved all of these games, and I thought video games can be used for learning.”

Along the way, she asked Dr. Anne Dorrance, the director of her master’s program, to help her move her project forward to the point it could serve as her final master’s “capstone.” Dr. Dorrance asked Dr. Nathan Tykocki, from the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, to act as her advisor.

“I’m a tech nerd anyway, and I thought it would be a good fit for her,” Dr. Tykocki said. “We probably talked bi-weekly about the project and keeping it on track. She’s exceptionally bright, and she had some broad, creative ideas.”

And when the time came for her to present her capstone, it did not take the usual form.

It was her video game, with the working title of “The Base Game,” and billed by German as an educational concept for what the human body actually does.

“We are building an anatomically accurate 3D human body,” she said. “We take the student and put them inside the body, and the student uses the blood vessels to travel to different organs and muscles and interact with the organs, muscles, and cells in order to save the body before it dies.”

German recalls presenting her video game to the committee, which included Dr. Tykocki, who concentrated on the technology side of the project, and Dr. Susan Barman, who looked at the basic physiology she included in the game.

German recalled with a laugh that after her presentation, there was silence from the committee and the question, “How do we grade a video game?”

Given another opportunity, she put her idea on paper and earned her Master’s with a thesis instead of the video game.

“This was so unique,” Dr. Tykocki said. “We just don’t see things like this, but we learned a lot from it.”

It was so unique that MSU’s Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation named German its 2024 Owen/Willard Student Entrepreneur Scholar. Established by MSU grad Ray Owen and Clarissa Willard, it supports students working to advance society through innovation.

The monetary award has allowed German to focus full-time on her project and, as the founder of a new company creating this game, Integrate Ed, Inc., she has the opportunity to expand her vision.

Dr. Tykocki believes she’s on the right track with the technological approach to teaching healthcare.

“It’s a massive unmet need,” he said. “It combines a level of detail in required medical education with novel modes of content delivery.”

She admits there’s a long way to go before her game can find its way into mainstream medical school teaching.

But she’s convinced it will and is receiving feedback from students, medical professionals, and technology gurus. She is also already looking at game expansions that will delve even deeper into the human body and how to heal it.

She knows it will never take the place of hands-on teaching – but she hopes it can provide support.

“I hope it becomes a learning tool that supplements student classes,” German said, adding, “You can’t replace professors; they’re vital.”

But she sees this as a future component of medical education and the future is now.

“I might as well be the one to start it,” she said. “Being there at the right moment is the key.”