About this conversation
Adam Gazzaley built EndeavorRx — the first FDA-approved video game prescription for pediatric ADHD. A doctor can literally write a prescription for it. What does it mean to design an experience so precisely calibrated to a clinical outcome that it clears the FDA?
The episode explores the intersection of Experience Thinking and neuroscience: how Gazzaley’s lab designs sensory environments to recruit specific neural pathways. The distinction between engagement and therapeutic engagement. What game designers get wrong about clinical intent, and what clinicians get wrong about play.
There’s a deeper question underneath: if a designed experience can be a prescription, what does that mean for every other designed experience in healthcare? What’s the experience equivalent of an accidental overdose — and who’s responsible for it?
Key questions
- What’s the difference between a game that’s engaging and a game that’s clinically therapeutic?
- How do you design for a specific brain state rather than a behavioral outcome?
- What does the FDA approval process force you to learn about the experience you’ve built?
Guest: Adam Gazzaley — Co-Founder & Chief Science Advisor, Akili; UCSF Neuroscape; Jazz Ventures · LinkedIn