By Jorge Ruiz, MD; and Allen D. Andrade, MD
Jorge Ruiz, MD is director of the Laboratory of E-learning and Multimedia Research and associate director for Education and Evaluation. Allen D. Andrade, MD is associate director of the Laboratory of E-learning and Multimedia Research and GRECC Investigator and both are at the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), Bruce W. Carter Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Miami, Florida.

Can an avatar that resembles you influence your behavior? There is growing evidence suggesting just that. Manipulating an avatar’s appearance to resemble an individual is now possible. Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford University found that college students reported increases in exercise 24 hours after viewing an avatar resembling them exercising. We investigated whether these findings translate into physical activity gains in sedentary, overweight veterans. We objectively assessed veterans’ levels of physical activity with accelerometers. We randomly assigned them into 1 of 3 groups: viewing an avatar that looked like them exercising, another viewing an avatar of another person exercising, and a third to watch a static figure exercising. Veterans who viewed an avatar resembling themselves exercising significantly improved their physical activity 1 week after the intervention. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22357026)

By Editor-in-Chief James V. Felicetta, MD

James V. Felicetta, MD is Editor-in-Chief for Federal Practitioner; chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Phoenix VA Health Care System in Phoenix, Arizona; professor of medicine at the University of Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona; and Governor-Select, Arizona Chapter, American College of Physicians. 
 

On behalf of all of us at Federal Practitioner, I’m delighted to welcome you to our exciting new blog! We believe the blog will be an important mechanism for allowing all of us to become more interconnected and interactive with one another. We will have members of our Editorial Advisory Association and our journal authors who already have blogging experience get us started with some provocative postings.