Could games in medicine ever become a widespread practise?

Using games for purposes besides entertainment is a largely unexplored area. It is because of that that I am so excited that games are finally becoming socially accepted enough for professional fields to consider their use. However, judging from the past, I am not honestly sure whether video games will ever become a widespread practice. God knows that the process thus far has been anything but quick. Most of the ideas that we've read about in the readings have been around for a long time, but implementation of the concepts never got off the ground, in no small part thanks the large amount of social stigma that surrounded anything about video games at the time.

When I was young, I remember hearing about the video game helmets you could use while at the dentist. The idea was about the same as in the "Distraction with a hand-held video game reduces pediatric preoperative anxiety" reading, but I never heard of adoption of the idea outside of specialized locations. The closest I ever saw were arcade games in the waiting room (which was still pretty sweet).

I've read many pieces of news or literature about video games helping cancer patients (go look up ReMission) or the blind or deaf, but most of these seem like they are the exception rather than the norm. What I am concerned of is that games will never reach a level of social acceptance such that they are able to be used on a large scale. I do hope that I am proved wrong however, especially with the rise in social acceptance of games thanks to games like Guitar Hero or the Wii.