Welcome to Gamer Medical School!

Did you know that surgeons in real life play Doctor Games and other kinds of video games to actually sharpen their skills? It sounds funny at first, but think about it: surgeons have to have excellent dexterity, sensitivity, and hand-eye coordination to perform difficult procedures. What better way to ensure those fingers are nice and nimble than to play video games! Whether you’re looking to become a doctor yourself one day or if you just love to help others while playing fun video games, we have a fully stocked category of doctor games just begging for your touch. Once you sign on, though, remember: people’s lives are at stake! (Not really, but it’s fun to role play, isn’t it?)

A Rich History of Virtual Healing

As early as the late 1980s with the 1988 release of Life and Death, a computer game that challenged players to assess, diagnose, and treat patients with different abdominal conditions, gamers and developers have been fascinated with doctor games. After all, it doesn’t take 12 years of medical school to treat someone virtually – you can probably figure out the controls and gameplay in less than 12 minutes, in fact! Since Life and Death, we have seen a ton of live as well as virtual medical games hit the scene, like the board game Operation and dozens of video games like Big Pharma, LifesSigns: Surgical Unit, Project Hospital, Plague Inc, and a whole lot more. Some of these games involve one-on-one care, and others involve managing larger networks of hospitals or even globally coordinating emergency care in the case of a crisis. Either way, there’s plenty to do for aspiring medical types.

How to Play Doctor Games

In general, doctor games aim to be realistic simulations. In other words, if you want to learn how to play, just play close attention the next time you go to the doctor. Depending on what your medical issue is, you will usually be taken through evaluation, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. In evaluation, the doctor asks questions about your problem. In assessment, they will poke and prod and test you to confirm or deny what they think is wrong with you. Once they’ve figured it out, they will diagnose you with the condition/injury, and finally, they’ll use their tools and techniques to treat you and hopefully fix the problem. Congratulations, you’re a doctor! Now, let’s take a quick tour of the many types of doctor games that are gaining popularity.

Ear, Nose, and Throat

We doctors try our best not to judge our patients, so when they come in with marbles, paper clips, and all kinds of stuff stuck up their nose, you’re not supposed to laugh. Ear, nose, and throat doctors (referred to as “ENTs”) help people with more than just stuff being shoved up their nose. You’re dealing with strep throat, clogged up ears, hearing problems, sinus issues, and a whole lot more. You may find yourself diagnosing tonsillitis one moment and pulling a disgusting insect out of some poor patient’s ear the next. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure!

Podiatry

As much as we abuse our feet day in and day out as busy working people, it’s no wonder that there is an entire field of medicine dedicated to combating all this wear and tear. As a podiatrist in these doctor games, you will find yourself up against calloused, cut open, bruised, and extremely dirty feet. In many cases, you can’t even begin to fix the underlying issue until you sterilize everything and apply bandages or wraps appropriately. Some patients need more work than others, but remember: it’s your job to help them no matter how gross the problem is, not to laugh at them! Being a doctor is hard work, and being a podiatrist can be even tougher. Hope you’re not grossed out by feet.

Brain and Spinal Cord

Some of the most serious injuries and medical conditions around affect the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord. Without these vital structures, we couldn’t walk, think, talk, or take care of ourselves at all. Even if an injury is minor, it’s very important that you as the doctor take care of it early on so that it doesn’t develop into something more serious. In many cases, this means surgery. That’s right, you may have to grab your heavy-duty tools and make a long incision along someone’s spine or around their head to access their back bones or their brain matter. Take a look around, find the problem, get it out of there, and stitch the person back up! Don’t forget to sterilize.

General Medicine and More

Not everyone’s a specialist, and if you like the idea of never knowing who exactly is going to walk through that door, then maybe general medicine is the place for you. Your patients could have anything, raging from a simple cold to a head-to-toe assortment of injuries they sustained while fighting crimes! A general practitioner has to have a well-rounded set of skills, meaning they can diagnose and treat a lot of different conditions. In the real world, GPs do a lot of referring to other specialists, but in these free online doctor games, it’s all up to you!

Addicted to the Realism?

If it’s fun and satisfying simulations that you’re after, then don’t feel like you have to be married to the stethoscope. When you’ve had enough playing doctor, we have plenty of simulation games available that allow you to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Want to be a veterinarian? We’ve got it. More interested in super-realistic drag racing? That’s here too. Even seemingly boring, everyday tasks like making a sandwich or doing chores can be made really fun by the right game, which is exactly what we aimed for in this category. Let’s see how you do in these doctor games, and then, you can carve out your own career path!