As a physician trying in earnest to prevent downstream complications of chronic conditions, I often resorted to scare tactics.

“Stick with your cholesterol medication or you’re at greater risk of heart attack.”

“Make sure to take your hypertension pills or you could end up with bleeding in the brain years down the line.”

My counsel felt right at the time, and may have done some good, but I’m now convinced that a lighter approach may have greater merit.

Medication nonadherence is one of the most serious challenges in healthcare – half of all patients with chronic diseases don’t take their medications as prescribed and nonadherence is directly associated with 125,000 deaths each year. We need to bring a multi-faceted approach to this multi-faceted problem.

A physician’s reminders of gloom and doom are too easy to deny when someone has an attitude of “that won’t happen to me.” For some, these warnings may even be too scary to process, or too distant in the future to resonate. Denial is easier. Plus, how often does a patient see a doctor? Perhaps too infrequently for a critical message to really take root.

I believe that, in keeping with a “treat patients like people” mantra, people are more likely to engage in activities they find pleasant, or even fun. Healthcare for the most part is unpleasant, but the relatively simple act of taking a daily medication doesn’t need to be.

At HealthPrize we recognize that human psychology is primarily to blame for medication nonadherence, rather than the commonly cited reasons of forgetfulness or cost. Part of this psychology is the negative bias that many of us have toward taking a medication, getting older, being labeled a patient with a condition, or ceding control to a healthcare system we may not fully trust.

In attempting to overcome this bias, the use of fear as a motivator can actually backfire. Instead, at HealthPrize we strive to transform that negative bias into a positive bias via the use of immediate gratification (which most chronic medications lack), gamification to make the process engaging, and education to communicate the value of the treatment plan.

Gamification is not new, of course. We encounter it all the time in consumer experiences to engender loyalty, enjoyment, and frequency of use — think Facebook, LinkedIn, Uber, airline miles programs, and customer cards at our favorite retailers. However, gamification is still relatively new in healthcare.