At VRFocus we’ve covered a number of immersive technologies that have been designed for healthcare uses, from technology to help surgeons perform complex procedures, to VR headsets to help distract from pain, or overcome phobias and addictions. The VR Expo has announced a specific day focusing on virtual reality (VR) for healthcare.
On Friday 9th March, the VR Expo will turn its collective attention to how VR and other immersive technologies can be used to improve healthcare, with one of the main specialities being examined the VR Exposure therapy, which is aimed at providing relief for those suffering from post-traumatic stress.
The usage of this type of VR therapy now extends to over sixty sites in the USA, including VA hospitals, military bases and universities. Treatments such as the ICT Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan exposure therapy approach has been shown to produce a reduction in symptoms of PTSD.
One of the speakers will be Skip Rizzo, who has been involved in creating a clinical system called Bravemind, a VR therapy tool which can be used to assess and treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Treatment of PTSD using graduated exposure therapy has already been well documented, which involves re-living a traumatic event in controlled conditions under the care of a clinician, thus allowing the patient to process the emotions associated with the trauma.
The potential of VR being involved in this treatment allows medical personnel to gradually immerse patients in the traumatic experience in a controlled fashion, proving the ability to control the multi-sensory emotional stimuli and monitor the responses of the patient.
Also joining Skip Rizzo at VR Expo will be Dr Michael Hornberger, who is the head of the Department of Medicine and Professor of Applied Dementia Research at Norwich Medical School. His research has focused on improving diagnosis, disease progression and symptom management in dementia. He will be presenting findings gathered from a mobile VR videogame, which has seen the equivalent of 9,400 years of lab research.
The timetable of the event is as follows:
The VR Expo 2018
The Future of Immersive Technology in Enterprise
Thursday 8th March 9.00 am – 16.30 pm
Mercure Hotel, 2 George St, Nottingham NG1 3BP
Antenna Media Centre, 9A Beck Street, Nottingham, NG1 1EQ
Talks Programme
10:00 Welcome and talk by Professor Phil Breedon
10:30 Skip Rizzo: Is Clinical Virtual Reality Ready for Primetime?
12:00 Networking break and explore the Expo
12:20 Professor Michael Hornberger: How Virtual Reality gamification help to understand Dementia.
13:30 Lunchtime and Networking
14:30 Andre Chow: Immersive Learning, future ways of Medical Training
15:30 VR Med talk
Workshops
10:00 Max Doelle: Hololens Workshop
10:00 Stephan Van Den Brink: Integrating Hand Interaction Workshop
10:00 Bushra Burge: VR & Fashion Workshop
11:30 Skip Rizzo: VR & Exposure Therapy
11:30 Howard griffin: VR & Heritage Workshop
14:00 John Holder: Realities Centre Training Academy
14:00 VR Nerds: Software Overview
14:00 Jan Pflüger VR & Engineering Workshop
The Future of Immersive Technology in Medical and Healthcare
Friday 9th March 10.00 am – 16.30 pm
Mercure Hotel, 2 George St, Nottingham NG1 3BP
Antenna Media Centre, 9A Beck Street, Nottingham, NG1 1EQ
Talks Programme
10:00 Welcome and talk by Professor Phil Breedon
10:30 Skip Rizzo: Is Clinical Virtual Reality Ready for Primetime?
12:00 Networking break and explore the Expo
12:20 Professor Michael Hornberger: How Virtual Reality and
gamification help to understand Dementia.
13:30 Lunchtime and Networking
14:30 Andre Chow: Immersive Learning, future ways of Medical Training
15:30 VR Med talk
Workshops
10:00 Andre Chow: Touch Surgery Workshop
11:30 John Holder: Realities Centre Training Workshop
11:30 Phil Breedon: Research in VR Workshop
15:00 Skip Rizzo: VR & Exposure Therapy
15:00 Michael Hornberger: VR & Dementia11:30 Phil Breedon: Research in VR Workshop
15:00 Skip Rizzo: VR & Exposure Therapy
15:00 Michael Hornberger: VR & Dementia
Further information on VR Expo can be found on the official website. VRFocus will continue to keep you informed on VR related events.