Spotlight on Games > Ludographies > Ludographies by Theme
Medicine Matters
108 Board Games About Medical Practice and Disease
January 7, 2015 added Acute Care · Black Stories: Medizin Edition · CLINIC · Doctor Wars · Infarkt · Infect · Infected · Malpractice! · Medicine Whoops · Occam's Razor · Parasite · Psycho!Therapist · Royal Hospital · Treatment: A psychiatry game · Virus the Card Game

Top Gift Ideas:
Pandemic and its expansions
Rattus and its expansions
Infection: Humanity's Last Gasp
Quackery
Infarkt
Operation

Categories:
General
Fighting Epidemics
Dentistry
Dexterity Games
Party Games
Cooperative Games
Trivia/Educational
Monopoly Clones
Television Tie-in
Related Games
Psychology
See Also ...
Games about Lawyers →
Wine Games


General
In alphabetical order

Bistourisq
Gérard Moreau & Bertrand Victor: Derideo editions-2010: 2-6: 75
In an unusual setup, each player is both a patient and a plastic surgeon. At first players roll-and-move to draw cards and thus create bodies in awful condition. Then they draw "perfect body" cards into which they need to convert their bodies. The method is again roll-and-move, aiming to land on surgery squares, hoping it doesn't go wrong. Players not otherwise involved get to wager on the outcome. The first to achieve the perfect body wins.

Body War
Aaron Klein, Maurizio Bertuzzi; B.T. Games-1986
In this Italian game human immunity cells struggle against invading viruses, bacteria and tumors on a hexagonal grid.

CLINIC
Alban Viard; AoS Team-2014; 2-4; 120
Each player tries to build the most efficient hospital in three dimensions, managing construction of the building, installation of new services and recruitment of the doctors, nurses and administrators that align with the arrival of new patients as well as care for patients. Each turn players take three actions. Each cube that enters the clinic comes with a car that needs to be parked, leaving less space for the hospital being constructed. Players move personnel in the 3D structure as efficiently as possible, with doctors and nurses tending to patients of the same color. Expanded by CLINIC Expansion: Medical Dossier 1, CLINIC Expansion: ICU free bonus tile, CLINIC Expansion: Medical Dossier 2 .

Doctor, Doctor!
Philip Orbanes; Ideal/Arxon-1978; 2-4; 30; 8+
Keep making the correct diagnoses in this game of deduction and rise from mere medical student to Chief Doctor. German edition known as

Doctor Wars
Jim Fulmer; Lurp Designs-2012; 2-4; 60
Twelve patients with four ailments each are distributed into rooms. Each player controls a nurse, resident, intern, and attending physician, which she moves from room to room curing to score points. Interns are fastest, doctors slowest, but doctors and residents outrank interns. Credit always goes to the highest ranking doctor in a room or, in case of a tie, to the player with the most doctors in the room. Nurses can block access to rooms. The games ends when all patients are cured of all ailments.

Dr. Kinkin Bacteriapanic
unknown; Yonezawa Corp.-1988; 2-8
Japanese card game of matching up sickness and cure cards which permits throwing both away. First to clear the hand wins.

Guess Who's Gone to Surgery
Lamar Emery, Carolan Emery; self-1988
The cover states "The hospital board game where you make the rounds".

Drug Attack
unknown; Dynamic Games-1971; 3-5; 10
Role-playing game about drug abuse.

Drugopoly
unknown; OP8 State Ltd-2004; 2-5; 30
There are two boards, one of which accumulates cash, the other serving as the arena for the drug war. Controlling the current drug gives all the cash on the other board. A betting game that includes police, jail, gang land shootings and rehab players.

Dynamite Nurse
Kukojin 1 gou; Hobby Japan-1990; 2-6; 30
Humorous card game with something of a fantasy feeling. Players are trying to cure various people, but some of the nurses are not so competent. Later expanded by Dynamite Nurse 2: Bloody Temple and Dynamite Nurse Returns.

Field Hospital
CW Karstens; Diamond K Games-2010; 2-5; 60
During the Korean War players attempt to attend to the wounded in a system similar to
Macao.

The Flying Doctor Game
unknown; Coral Industries PTY LTD. Incorporated-unknown; 2-6; 7+
On a map of Australia, players fly around on medical missions. The Game of Rival Doctors
unknown; McLoughlin Brothers-1892; 2-4
Roll-and-move game of doctors competing to cure a very rich man.

Heart Attack
Table Top Games, Inc.-2004; 2-4; 60; 8+
Roll-and-move game about heart health in which players gradually get sicker.

Infarkt
Vladimír Brummer; Czech Board Games-2011; 2-5; 45
Each player has personal board tracking various health metrics. Each round the draft event cards that lower their health levels. Then they simultaneously visit various locations and see what happens there. Then health levels are re-checked. The last player alive wins.

Infect
Mathieu Dumoulin; (self-published)-2014; 1-4
Plyers each represent an unname disease trying to destroy life on earth. Features 5 decks:

Turn sequence:
  1. Get your turn's energy
  2. Draw some cards
  3. Play the cards in your hand
  4. Attempt to kill
  5. Attempt to infect the world
  6. Complete objectives
  7. Discard unwanted cards

Infecta
Ken Totten; Tau-10 Games-1982; 2; 30; 8+
Two single-celled organisms struggle for survival. Dice are involved.

Infected
Ryan Leacock; Eiglo Games-2015; 3-8; 60
Zombie-oriented game in which players represent just infected humans starting to transform. The humans must fight those who have gone zombie. Features five card types and three types of dice results. Inspired by
Bang!

Infection
Dan Sullivan; Earwig Enterprises-1998
American game about fighting off multiple diseases is lightly less satirical than the above, but it's interesting that early it's actually a valid tactic to try to gain more diseases in order to get more money for treatment. [more]

Infection Control Game
Lois P. Christel; (unknown)-1984; 2-5
Promotional roll-and-move game of checking into and out of a hospital, trying to avoid contracting an infection.

Der Kleine Medicus
Kai Haferkamp; Kosmos-2007; 2-5; 45
Players hunt an evil robot with four mini submarines within the human body. Goal is to catch the robot while spending as little energy as possible. Each player plays the robot once.

Malpractice!
Martyn Mendyuk; Duke Games-2014; 3-6; 60/
A
take that! card game of doctors treating patients. Players want to heal the patient on their turns, but sabotage another player's treatments until they lose and get sued.

Medical Madness
Alan B. Chesley; JAMBAM Enterprises-1982; 2-4
Roll-and-move storytelling game probably played for humor. Included are characters with the following doctor names: Al Key, Buster Hymen, Seymour Scars, Doug Face, Justin Airhead, Mestup and Vague, Eric Shun, Uragoner, Spreademwide.

Medicine Whoops
Trevor Lafferty & Matt Schwartz; Analog Evolution Games-2015; 2-4
Players are doctors competing to treat patients using whatever tools they can acquire, but also hindering opponents. See who has the most cures and fewest expirations. Sounds like a
take that! affair.

Mercy
unknown; Abuse And Corruption Unltd.-1974; 2-6
Satirical game of trying to escape from a hospital. Dice play an important role.

Onkel Doktor
unknown; Schmidt-1985; 2-4; 10; 8+
A deduction game for kids in which the symptoms of an illness are hidden in a pouch. Players roll-and-move medical instruments, e.g. stethoscope, thermometer, around the board, occasionally getting a chance to pull out a symptom at random. The eventual winner is the first to correctly guess the identity of the illness.

Pain Doctors: The Game of Recreational Surgery
Michael A Powell, Victor Oliver; Dreamsville Publishing-1996
Perhaps a mirror of the common anxiety about seeing the doctor?

Parasite
Iknik & Scaut; Cynyc Games/ The Game Crafter-2013; 7-12; 30
Players try to fight the alien parasite that has infected crew members of the ISS Fluffy Pink Cloud. It is not clear, however, who is infected and who isn't. Each turn, each player visits another player to protect them from infection (or, to infect him). Engineers can perform body scans, the doctor can surgically remove an alien and perform a blood transfusion. Each turn, the players vote on who will perform which action and on whom. Other players have special abilities also.

Parasites Unleashed
James L. Cambias & Diane A. Kelly; Zygote Games-2007; 2-4; 8+
Blackly humorous card game of parasites competing to take over the host's brain.

Quack in the Box
unknown; Don Gusano Games, Inc.-2010; 2-6; 45
Humorous game including 140 cards in which players represent quacks treating patients with whatever is to hand. Although these methods do not work, the players still earn money, which is the object of the game, so long as the quack is not killed by an angry mob or is able to feel to Switzerland. The number of treatments one plays is determined by die roll and only patients who survive pay.

Quackery: The Game of Medieval Medicine
Geoff Habiger & Coy Kissee; Tangent Games-2009; 2-4; 30
Humorous card game of attempting to be the most successful at treating a royal family.

Quacksalbe
Volker Tietze; Feuer & Flamme-1998
This little-known cult favorite is an amusing trick-taking card game which features four competing treatment methods: drugs, accupuncture, blood letting and electric shock. Players try to ensure their preference is the strongest treatment without overdoing it. Player who has had the most real-life medical treatment goes first.
[more]

Royal Hospital
Carlos Michán Amado; Lost Games Entertainment Ltd.-unknown; 1-5
Players are building up and managing their own hospitals, patients, doctors, research and facilities, trying to go the furthest toward completion with the most patients healed, most research completed and most effective doctors. At the start of the turn, players ask for patients to treat and distribute them among the facilities. After that, players use their healing and diagnosis tokens to heal as many patients as possible. Every patient healed yields income to improve their hospital and hire new doctors. Players hamper their rivals by sending them extra patients or using special cards.

Ruhe in Frieden
Henning Poehl; Sphinx Spieleverlag-2003; 3-5; 45
In "Rest in Peace", each player has five relatives on the brink, but only five graves are available, so players bribe doctors to give placebos to their relatives while trying to keep other players' relatives alive.

Trauma Case Inbound
Wendell Martin, Jr.; NeoNavis-2007; 1-4; 30
Emergency room simulation.

Virus & Co
Jörg Spiegelhalter, Frank Stark; Zoch Verlag-2002
And then there is medicine from the diseases' points of view! An auction game featuring players as guinea pigs taking viruses and similar microbes.
[more]

Virus the Card Game
Mark Basker; Around The Clock Games/The Game Crafter-2014; 2-4; 15; 8+
Players try to increase the lethality of a virus by continually adding more cards, representing mutations; the first to reach 100% wins. Employs simultaneous play.

What's Up, Doc?
unknown, Milton Bradley-1978
Akin to Cluedo, a roll-and-move with logical deduction game. The fun is in the made up disease names like Kneasles and Stinkfoot ...


Fighting Epidemics
In chronological order

Snit's Revenge
Tom Wham; TSR-1977
One player is a kind of creature which tries to fight off infection by snits which attempt to ravage the internal organs while fighting the immune system.

Plague!
Christine Barsky; B&B Productions-1991
Inspired by Monty Python, a game of transporting loads of infected victims by wagon to their final resting places, while avoiding rats and fleas. The first to bury 99 victims wins. Hmmm, how are you ever going to get that many infected? You don't think nature can manage all that on its own, do you?

Omega Virus, The
Michael Gray; Milton Bradley-1992
Save the space station from the evil Omega Virus.

Black Death
Greg Porter; Blacksburg Tactical Research Center-1993
In this one you get to play the disease, having a Lethality and Virulence. Can you strike the right balance between the two to cause maximum damage? For example, too much Lethality e.g. Ebola and you can't spread very far because your victims die before they can pass it on.

Plague & Pestilence
Tray Green and Dawn Payn; Hillary's Toy Box-1994
In this
take that! elimination card game the Bubonic Plague is always the ultimate winner. [more]
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Ebola Monkey Hunt
Chuck Wilhelm and Eric Kriser; Placebo Press-1998
Bringing back monkeys alive, but sometimes the tranquilizer darts "misses," hitting a fellow researcher.

Beest
Jeroen Doumen, Joris Wiersinga, Herman Haverkort; Splotter Spellen-2001
Uncovered in the Antarctic wastes, a new disease seeks to expand its tentactles across the earth.

Rattus
Henrik & Åse Berg; HUCH & friends-2010/White Goblin Games-2010/Z-Man Games-2010; 2-4; 45
Fighting the Black Death in Europe of 1347. Expanded by Rattus: Africanus, Rattus: Essen 2010 Bonus, Rattus: Essen 2011 Bonus Cards, Rattus: Jester Promo Card, Rattus: Judge Promo Card, Rattus: Pied Piper.
[more]

Healing Blade: Infectious Disease Card Battle
Francis Kong & Arun Mathews; NerdcoreLearning-2010; 2; 40
It's the Apothecaries, whose weaspons are named after real world antibiotics against the Lords of Pestilence, named after disease and bacterial agents in this card battle game. Ninety cards are included.

Infection: Humanity's Last Gasp
John Gibson; Victory Point Games-2013; 1
Solitaire game of trying to stop a virulent virus that has broken out in New York City. The player decides the parts of the virus to study, hires personnel and buys equipment. The staff do not always get along. Funding must also be managed.


Dexterity
In chronological order

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Operation
Marvin Glass & John Spinello; Milton Bradley-1965
The canonical example of a doctor game that everyone thinks of also has a spinoff,
Operation Brain Surgery.
[more]

Alien Autopsy
unknown; DaMert Company-1998
Perhaps a mirror of the common anxiety about little green men?

Monster Medic
unknown; Fundex-2002; 7+
Copy of Operation (above), but here the patient is a monster.

My First Operation
unknown; Hasbro-2002; 2-5; 4+
Copy of Operation for younger kids.

Operation Brain Surgery
unknown; Hasbro-2002; 1-4; 20; 4+
Spinoff of Operation (above) for younger kids. This time the surgery is only on a head, not an entire body.

Cardio Alarm
Aleksander Daukszewicz, Bartek Fabiszewski, Pawel Jurgiel, Robert Wolkiewicz & Zbigniew Zych; Granna-2012; 3-5; 10; 7+
Polish real-time card game race through the corridors of a hospital, based on
Dominoes. One player is the hospital director who must stop the rest, agents who have stolen information from a secret project. The cards depict colors rather than numbers of pips. Each of the two sides have their own decks.

Mr. Surgeon
unknown; Castle Classics-unknown; 2; 6+
Copy of Operation (above).


Party
In chronological order

Black Stories: Medizin
Nicola Berger; moses. Verlag GmbH-2014; 2-15; 20
Expansion kit for Black Stories, a murder mystery party game. Includes fifty morbid cases with a medical twist.

Psycho!Therapist
(unknown); (unknown)-2015; 3-8; 60
Players take on the roles of a therapist attempting to treat weird problems. The result is similar to an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Cards identify patients by attitude, oocupation, problem and specific behavior. Players imagine treatments for these patients and roll percentile dice to see whether they work.


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Cooperative
In chronological order

Friday Night at the ER
Bette Gardner; Breakthrough Learning-2007; 4-200; 90
Cooperative game of managing a hospital and meant to foster team building and interaction.

Pandemic
Matt Leacock; Z-Man Games-2008; 2-4; 60
Cooperative game in which the players through card play must stop virulent diseases from spreading throughout the world. Later expanded by Pandemic: Contagion, Pandemic: The Cure, Pandemic: The Generalist, Pandemic: In the Lab, Pandemic: Legacy, Pandemic: On the Brink.

Infection Express
Andy Oakey; Print & Play Productions-2009; 1-2; 20; 8+
Cooperative game in which players must stop virulent diseases from spreading throughout the world. Uses dice for resolution.

Pox: Save the People
Zara Downs, Mary Flanagan & Max Seidman; Tiltfactor-2011; 1-4; 35; 8+
Area enclosure game in which players work together to stop the spread of disease. Meant to teach the concepts of group immunity and the importance of vaccination.

Acute Care
Chris Norwood; Game Salute-2015; 2-5; 45
Card game of nurses working in a hospital during a single twelve-hour shift, caring for patients and dealing with emergencies. Players have six time cubes, each representing 10 nurse-minutes, to spend each turn.


Dentistry
In chronological order

Adventures in Toothland
Gregg Mason; Cavity Crasher Creations-1987
The allied field of dentistry takes a turn as players learn about oral hygiene.

Crocodile Dentist
Robert Fuhrer & Sano Takeshi; Parker Brothers-1990/Milton Bradley-1990; 2-4; 10; 4+
Pull out the croc's teeth one at a time, but don't pull the one that makes the mouth snap closed.

Pearly Whites
unknown; Learning Resources-2006; 2; 30
Roll-and-move trivia game on dental health.


Trivia/Educational
In chronological order

Metabolism
unknkown; CRM Books-1972
Roll-and-move educational game included in the book Involvement in Biology Today.

Emergency Action
W. O. Barker; self-1974; 2-4
This roll-and-move trivia game to teach first aid.

Triage: The Game For Health Care Professionals
Jeff & Steve Dykes; Horizon Games-1980; 2-4; 45
Roll-and-move educational game about emergency health care. Certain spaces generate questions; correct answers earn points and certificates. Includes two decks of question cards.

Medical Challenge
unknown; Mark-Star Enterprises-1986; 2-4
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on medical topics.

Dr. Arnvie's Grand Rounds
unknown; The Vincent Company, Inc.-1989; 2-6
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on medical topics.

Hospital Hilarity
Tri Prom International-1990; 2-6; 45
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit,

Limbo: The Health Care Game
(uncredited); American Association of Retired Persons-1990; 2-8; 15
Roll-and-move educational on US health care costs. Cost spaces require drawing cost cards which charge players money, depending on current insurance status, while income spaces provide more funds. The last player to run out of money wins.

MediCumLaude
Dr. Schneiderbanger, Dr. Urban; MLP / Urban & Schwarzenberg-1993
Not clear if it's a game or a training manual.

The Board: Chiropractic Edition
unknown; unknown-1995; 2-4
Trivial Pursuit-style game

Pharmacy
Lisa Elia; The Happy Game Makers-2000; 2
Roll-and-move trivia game. Each player chooses a different character, e.g. a guru, yuppie, gambler, actor, politician, farmer or hippie.

Professor Noggin's The Human Body Game
unknown; Outset Media-2002; 2-8; 7+
Educational trivia game.

Volgende patiënt
Kai Haferkamp; Jumbo-2003; 2-4; 30; 8+
Trivia game on viruses and the human body.

Is there a doctor in the house?
Gill Paul; Barron's-2005; 3-6; 15
Trivia game which can require players to answer a question, place an organ or bone sticker in the correct position on the body diagram or to examine a patient in a professional manner.

Der Nächste Bitte
Kai Haferkamp; Jumbo-2005; 2-4; 30; 8+
"Next, Please" is a German roll-and-move trivia game of helping Lukas to rid himself of his infections by answering questions correctly or dueling with dice.

The Road to Health
John Dimond; PCI Educational Publishing-2007; 2-6; 30
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on medical topics.

The Good Health Game
R.J.E. Games-2008; 2; 30; 5+
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on exercise and eating healthy foods.

Das Krankenhaus
Michael Rüttinger; Noris Spiele-2008; 1-6; 30; 6+
German DVD-based educational game for children about hospitals. After watching the movie, players roll dice to land on a space where they draw a card and answer a question abased on something from the film. Correct answers earn chips, collection of eight of which give the win.

Erste Hilfe
Hans-Jürgen Köhler; iToy-2009; 1-12; 15; 7+
Trivia game about first aid; includes an electronic pen for choosing answers.

Evidence in Action
South African Cochrane Centre-2009; 2; 120; 6+
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on medical topics. Developed by WHO.

El Juego de la salud
Falomir Juegos-2009; 1-15; 9+
Roll-and-move trivia game along the lines of
Trivial Pursuit, but on medical topics.

Occam's Razor
Jeevan Gowda, Arun & Zeeba Mathews, Brandon Patton; NerdcoreLearning-2013; 1-6
Subtitled "The Dianostician's Dilemma", a card game in four versions:


Monopoly Clones
In chronological order

Medical Monopoly
James N. Vail; Professional Games-1979
This one and the next both premiered in 1979. Wonder which one had the idea first.

Intern
Dr. Cliff Andrew, Dr. Lou Andrew; Avalon Hill-1979
The Avalon Hill version.

Resistoly
unknown; Lichtwehr Pharma, unknown
*Ka-choo*! Can you Resist the invading viruses?


Television Tie-ins
In chronological order

Ben Casey M.D.
unknown; Transogram-1961
"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV".

Dr. Kildare
Ideal-1962; 1-4; 20; 7-12
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

Emergency Ward 10
Bell-1962; 2-4; 8+
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

The Nurses Game
Ideal-1965; 2-4
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

Police Surgeon
unknown; American Publishing Corp.-1972; 2-4
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

Rex Morgan M.D.
Ideal-1972; 2-4; 7-14
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

The Emergency Game
unknown; Milton Bradley-1973; 2-4; 10; 8+
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

Mash Game
unknown; Transogram-1975; 2-4
Based on the Korean War television program, players try to obtain the Jeep and/or helicopter, acquire transfer orders and be sent home in this roll-and-move game. It's interesting the way the goal evolved to reflect changes in the program in the next take on this series.

Mash Game
unknown; Milton Bradley-1981: 2-4: 20: 7+
Based on the Korean War television program, players try to rescue the wounded and get them to a reschu chopper in this roll-and-move game. Includes the characters Hawkeye Pierce, Major Margaret Houlihan, B.J. Hunnicutt and Klinger.

General Hospital
Cardinal-1982; 2-10; 60; 8+
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.

Die Schwarzwaldklinik
Helge Andersen; Siso Trend-1986; 2-6; 30
Roll-and-move game based on the television program.


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Related
In chronological order

Game of Life, The
Milton Bradley; Milton Bradley-1860
Not truly on topic, but tangentially, one of the possible outcomes for a player's life is to go to medical school and become a doctor.
[more]

Source of the Nile
Ross Maker, Dave Wesely; Discovery Games, Avalon Hill-1979
One of the professions a player can choose to be is doctor, which can come in quite handy should one become sick in the heart of primitive Africa. [more]

Kreml (Kremlin)
Urs Hostettler; Fata Morgana Spiele-1988
In this one, a leader who finds life in the Kremlin too stressful tends to get sick and must go to the Sanatorium for the cure, but it's a dangerous decision for who knows what his enemies will get up to while he's away. [more]
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Kill Doctor Lucky
James Ernest; Cheapass Games-1996
It's unclear whether Dr. Lucky is actually a medical doctor, but at least the word is in the title. Others in this series are Kill Doctor Lucky: Craigdarroch; Save Doctor Lucky; Save Doctor Lucky on Moon Base Copernicus. [more]

Manitou
Günter Burkhardt; Goldsieber-1997
If you will permit a medicine man to enter the list. [more]


Psychology
In chronological order

Group Therapy
Joseph Schlichter; Group Therapy Associates-1969
The allied field of psychology ...

Therapy
Jay Titel; Milton Bradley-1988
The allied field of psychology ... is a good subject for a game in the party category.

Therapie
Harald Bilz, Peter Gutbrod & Rainer Kroehn; kröhnland-games-1989; 3-7; 60
Dice rolling and trading game of psychologists trying not to kill their patients.

Treatment: A psychiatry card game
(unknown); Shared Bulb Games-2015; 2-4; 30
Players compete to be the first to solve four cases, each round choosing to play treatment cards or improving their hands.


This list dedicated to Dr. Angus Chu, who once asked me, are there any games about doctors?
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