University of Washington
Hunter Hoffman, Ph.D. did pre-doctoral research on human memory and attention at Princeton with Marcia K. Johnson (MK Johnson is now at Yale University). And he subsequently studied how people distinguish real from virtual memories, virtual reality monitoring. Hunter is the Director of the Virtual Reality Research Center at the Human Photonics Lab at the UW, and he is affiliate faculty in Psychology at the UW, and he is Faculty of a Harvard Medical School CME course entitled Pediatric Sedation Outside of the Operating Room.
In the 1990s, Dr. Hoffman originated using immersive VR pain distraction to reduce acute pain (e.g., pediatric burn patients during wound cleaning) a new non-pharmacologic analgesic, a technique he developed in collaboration with Dr. Dave Patterson and colleagues (Hoffman et al, first published in 1998 and 2000). Hoffman also designed SnowWorld, the first VR world specifically designed for pain control. In addition to being used with pediatric burn patients, SnowWorld became an interactive museum exhibit at Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design Triennial, and the Contemporary Art Museum of Boston. Using custom magnet friendly fiberoptic VR goggles he designed, Hoffman’s fMRI studies have shown VR reduces pain-related brain activity and is as effective as a moderate dose of hydromorphone. More recently he designed a portable water-friendly VR system, with a robot-like arm goggle holder used to treat children with large severe burn injuries (40% TBSA) during burn wound care in the hydrotank (Hoffman et al., 2019;2020). He recently published the first clinical use of immersive virtual reality to enhance VR mindfulness of patients (with Marsha Linehan and Marivi Navarro). In a laboratory study, he recently measured how much attention is used by VR and how that relates to the amount of pain reduction (Hoffman, 2021) and he has recently become interested in embodiment and avatar ownership (with Herta Flor and Walter Greenleaf). Previously funded by NIH, Paul Allen, and Ross Chambers, Hoffman is currently funded by the Mayday Fund, a philanthropy in New York.
National Institutes of Health
Associate Investigator
Head of the Communication Attitudes and Behavior Unit
Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area (IVETA) National Human Genome Research Institute
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Susan Persky is an Associate Investigator, Head of the Communication Attitudes and Behavior Unit, and directs the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area (IVETA) within the Social and Behavioral Research Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Persky earned a B.A. in psychology from Northwestern University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied at the Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior. After conducting postdoctoral research at Columbia University, she came to the NIH in 2005. Dr. Persky splits her effort between providing leadership for the IVETA and conducting her programmatic research. Her work investigates the function of new genomic knowledge about common conditions like obesity in interactions between health care providers and patients, and in public and online discourse. She draws upon virtual reality and other technologically-oriented tools to conduct her research.
University of Southern California
Dr. Skip Rizzo
Clinical Psychologist
Director of Medical Virtual Reality
Institute for Creative Technologies
University of Southern California
Albert “Skip” Rizzo, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a Research Professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Over the last 25 years, Skip has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment and rehabilitation across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. Some of his recent work has involved the creation of artificially intelligent virtual human (VH) patients that novice clinicians can use to practice skills required for challenging diagnostic interviews and for creating online virtual human healthcare guides, and clinical interviewers with automated sensing of facial, gestural, and vocal behaviors useful for inferring the state of the user interacting with these virtual human entities. In spite of the diversity of these clinical R&D areas, the common thread that drives all of his work with digital technologies involves the study of how interactive and immersive Virtual Reality simulations can be usefully applied to address human healthcare needs beyond what is possible with traditional 20th Century tools and methods.
Floreo
Dr. Varun Choudhary
Board-Certified Forensic Psychiatrist
Chief Medical Officer, Floreo
Chief Medical Officer, Talkspace
Varun Choudhary MD, MA, DFAPA is a Board-Certified Forensic Psychiatrist and the Chief Medical Officer of Floreo & Talkspace. He recently joined Floreo in July 2023.
Dr. Choudhary is active in policy, legislation, and behavioral health advocacy. He is the current Governor-appointed Psychiatrist to the Behavioral Health & Disability Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a board member of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia & Medical Society of Virginia, and recent past president of the MSV Foundation.
Dr. Choudhary has extensive experience in managed care, and was the national Chief Medical Officer of Behavioral Health for Magellan Health prior to joining Talkspace in 2021.
Dr. Choudhary has worked in the behavioral health industry for close to 20 years providing care to patients in the public sector, correctional arena, private practice, and community-based settings.
He has specialty in Telepsychiatry, Managed Care, Population Health, Collaborative Care, Quality Metrics, Behavioral Health Outcome Measures and Autism/Intellectual Disabilities. Dr. Choudhary is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
HouseCall VR
Dr. Linda Ciavarelli
Co-Founder
HouseCall VR
Dr. Ciavarelli is a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) and ABMSP board-certified specialist in Primary Podiatric Care. With over 20 years of clinical experience ranging from community care in private practice to facility-based care, she has honed her expertise in preventative, orthopedic, and dermatologic podiatric medicine.
In addition to her clinical background, Dr. Ciavarelli is the co-founder of HouseCall VR, an innovative early-stage startup dedicated to creating virtual reality patient education. HouseCall VR aims to improve health literacy and outcomes using immersive technology. Dr. Ciavarelli is a sought-after speaker, having presented at numerous state, national, and global conferences, scientific meetings, and symposia on topics such as Patient Education Using Immersive Technology, Immersive Technology in Healthcare, The Metaverse and Healthcare, and Using Social Immersive Technology to Create Greater Health Equity.
Dr. Ciavarelli is committed to the medical profession, her patients, and the greater community. She currently has the honor to serve her professional and local community through various director and leadership positions in the government and non-profit sectors.
University of Iowa
Juan Pablo Hourcade is a Professor at The University of Iowa's Department of Computer Science and Director of Graduate Studies for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Informatics. His main area of research is Human-Computer Interaction, with a focus on the design, implementation, evaluation, and ethics of technologies that support creativity, collaboration, well-being, healthy development, and information access for a variety of users, including children and older adults.
Dr. Hourcade is the author of Child-Computer Interaction, the first comprehensive book on the topic, and has held various leadership roles in his research community (e.g., Papers Co-Chair for CHI 2016 and CHI 2017). He is in the Editorial Board of Interacting with Computers and the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. In 2022, he was named ACM Distinguished Speaker.
Luminopia
Scott Xiao
Co-Founder and CEO
Luminopia
Scott Xiao is the Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia, a digital therapeutics company whose lead product is a groundbreaking new treatment for lazy eye, the leading cause of vision loss in children. Working with leading clinicians at Boston Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins, he has developed a virtual reality (VR) based device that modifies popular TV shows and movies into therapeutic visual stimuli, making treatment both more fun and effective. The technology has been validated in several clinical trials, including a nationwide, phase 3 pivotal trial. The team received FDA approval about a year ago, becoming the first company to get FDA approval for a VR-based treatment for any medical condition, and the product is now being prescribed by the top eye institutes and children's hospitals across the US. For his work on Luminopia, Scott has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for healthcare and the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35.
Love146
Erin Williamson
Chief Programs & Strategy Officer
Love146
Erin Williamson serves as the Chief Programs & Strategy Officer for Love146. She is responsible for leading the development, implementation, and operation of Love146’s US Survivor Care and Prevention Education programs. Erin has over 20 years of direct service, program management, and applied research experience in the fields of social service and criminal justice, with particular expertise in the areas of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. She has a Masters in Public Administration and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Erin also sits on the US Department of Health and Human Services National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children & Youth in the United States.
Child's Play
With over a decade of working in the primary/secondary education field, Travis Eriksen has been the Executive Director of Child's Play since 2017. With a Master’s Degree focused in Education from Oregon State University, he has helped Child's Play move toward not only giving games and tech away but also to become a teaching resource in how to use games as an intentional part of therapy.
Augment Therapy, Inc.
Lindsay Watson PT, MPT
CEO and Co-Founder
Augment Therapy, Inc.
Lindsay Watson PT, MPT is the CEO and Co-Founder of Augment Therapy, Inc. a digital health company that uses augmented reality experiences, as well as virtual care enabled features to engage people of all ages and abilities in therapeutic exercise. The company is on a mission to positively impact the healthcare industry through accessible, cutting-edge technology that transforms exercise into an enjoyable experience. Lindsay’s passion to drive change in the rehab and healthcare industries is due to her 20 plus years working as a physical therapist focused largely on pediatrics. As a tech founder, she was named one of Cleveland’s Notable Women of Technology, and Cleveland.com’s HomeGrown Hero in the category of Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. She has led Augment Therapy to win many awards including national recognition from Unity in 2022 as a “Unity for Humanity Grant Winner,” GCP’s “Most Promising Startup,” in 2020, and a “Company to Watch,” by Inc Magazine. Augment Therapy has also participated in multiple tech accelerators nationwide, and was even mentioned in Forbes magazine. She is an active member of the APTA and resides in Chagrin Falls, Ohio with her husband and 3 children.
DermicVR
Dr. Martin de Santos
CEO
DermicVR
Martin de Santos, PhD (Yale, 2007) is an experienced technology entrepreneur in VR, Mobile, Education and Medicine.
He is the director and founder of Tipitap Dev, boutique development firm that works with entrepreneurs and large companies developing VR, AR and mobile games in the health and education spaces. We have developed experiences for Purell/Gojo, Wells Fargo, Nick Jr, NorthShore, HDMedical, and Reflect XR.
He is the founder of DermicVR, a company focusing on using VR to improve patient experiences in common medical procedures. We have developed Vaccination VR and Venipuncture VR. Both are available for kids, teens and adults. Our solutions are being used in 10+ countries ranging from large hospitals to small medical practices.
Martin was the co-founder and CEO of Tipitap, an award winning and leading children’s app developer. He is currently working with the NGO of the Oscar nominated Director, Damian Szifrón to develop mobile games and apps to promote reading and literacy.
Before diving into the world of software development and apps, Martin taught and Cornell and NYU Buenos Aires.
Honors & Awards:
Launch EDU 2012 Best international Company, Palo Alto, CA
Best App 2011 iTunes Rewind Education (Apple Award)
Children’s Technology Review Gold Medal
Google Play Editor's Choice
Google I/O featured developer
Parent’s Choice Awards
Apps featured in New York Times and USA Today.
Harvard CyberLaw Clinic
Kendra Albert
Clinical Instructor
Cyberlaw Clinic
Harvard Law School
By day, I’m a clinical instructor at the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School, where I teach students to practice technology law. I am a radical generalist and will work on pretty much anything technology-related. Some recent (public) highlights include:
*Helping Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy organization, fight back against a retaliatory and overbroad subpoena from Proctorio, an e-proctoring company.
*Working with sex worker art collective Veil Machine to provide legal support for their art show E-Viction, that protested digital gentrification.
*Representing Paul Kruczynski when he received a takedown letter from Instagram for his use of the Instagram trademark in the domain name “dontuseinstagram.com.”
My scholarship, writing, and speaking focus on questions of digital technology and power, especially in relationship to gender and sexuality.
*My legal scholarship focuses on FOSTA/SESTA, a 2018 law that changed how liability worked for online platforms around sex trafficking and prostitution. With Elizabeth Brundige and Lorelei Lee, I published a descriptive article, FOSTA in Legal Context, which aimed to situate FOSTA in relationship to the Mann Act and the Travel Act. More recently, I have an article called Five Reflections from Four Years of FOSTA/SESTA, forthcoming in the Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal, which tries to summarize what working with sex workers on FOSTA has taught me.
*With Maggie Delano, I’ve written about how non-binary people are excluded from “smart scales” and what this means about inclusion in health technologies more generally, in “This Whole Thing Smacks of Gender”.
*With Ram Shankar Siva Kumar and others, I’ve written and spoken about how to apply law to adversarial attacks on machine learning systems. Our Blackhat talk “Smashing the ML Stack for Fun and Lawsuits” is a great summary, or you can check out the fuller range of papers on my CV.
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Thomas Murray
Professor
Dept. of Pediatrics
Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Thomas Murray is a Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Infectious Disease where he serves as the Fellowship Director and the Associate Medical Director for Infection Prevention at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. He is also the Medical Director of the Winchester Pediatric Tuberculosis Clinic. After receiving his MD and PhD from the University of Connecticut, he completed pediatric residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. He remained at Yale, completing fellowships in both pediatric infectious diseases and medical microbiology and returned to the faculty of the Yale Medical School in 2018. He studies infection prevention and disinfection in the healthcare and home environment as well as host pathogen interactions during pulmonary infections with an emphasis on children with Cystic Fibrosis.
Nixon Gwilt Law
Kaitlyn O’Connor, Esq. is Senior Counsel at Nixon Gwilt Law. An energetic and relationship-focused healthcare innovation attorney, Kaitlyn provides practical and strategic legal advice with a focus on business implications and what is best for the client's business. She excels at creative problem-solving and balancing risk in "grey" areas for her clients.
Kaitlyn’s experience and areas of practice include digital health, telehealth, veterinary telemedicine (aka, TelePet), direct-to-consumer digital health business models, remote care management, virtual first delivery models, global privacy and security, teledentistry, fraud and abuse, and HIPAA privacy/security. She provides legal, regulatory, and business guidance to healthcare providers across the spectrum of care, as well as early-stage companies and vendors serving the healthcare industry. Kaitlyn specializes in remote patient monitoring (RPM) and leads NGL’s RPM practice alongside Managing Partner Carrie Nixon. Kaitlyn particularly enjoys working with innovative RPM vendors to implement practical business solutions and accelerate growth in this rapidly expanding industry.
After graduating magna cum laude from Syracuse University, Kaitlyn attended William & Mary Law School, where she served as a member of the Business Law Review. She is a member of the Connected Health Initiative (CHI), Co-chair of the Health & Life Sciences Affinity Group for the National Association of Women Lawyers ("NAWL"), member of the Reproductive Justice Working Group with the Law Firm Anti-racism Alliance ("LFAA"), member of the American Telemedicine Association, and serves as a Mentor for Jumpstart Foundry, an investment group focused on healthcare technology. Kaitlyn also provides mentorship for startups participating in the MassChallenge HealthTech, KidsX, and Leap Venture Studio accelerators.
Kaitlyn is based in Nixon Gwilt Law’s Richmond office and lives in Richmond with her dog Milly.
Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan
Dr. Andrew Hashikawa
Clinical Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Department of Emergency Medicine
Andrew Hashikawa is a Clinical Associate Professor at Michigan Medicine and works as a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan (UM). He serves as the American Academy of Pediatrics Early Childhood Champion and is the lead for online medical education at the UM Injury Center. He is the creator of MCRISP, an online childcare biosurveillance network, and is a member of the UM Emergency Department's Research and Education in Acute Care using Technology (REACT) group that focuses on using emerging technologies to shape the delivery of health care, augment patient education and shared decision making.
Reframe Health and Justice
Kate D'Adamo
Partner
Reframe Health and Justice
Kate D'Adamo is a partner at Reframe Health and Justice, a collective working at the intersections of harm reduction, healing justice and criminal-legal reform. Kate draws on a background of community organizing, lived experience, direct service provision and program development focused on the health and wellness of marginalized communities engaging in criminalized survival, with a focus on people who trade sex and use substances. At Reframe, Kate spearheads policy advocacy, training and technical assistance for service providers and capacity building for community-based organizations looking to engage in broad forms of change. Kate has previously worked in advocacy and direct service for people who trade sex, including people who have experienced trafficking, at the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center and Give Way to Freedom. Kate is currently based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Invincikids
Andre’ Bollaert
Executive Director
Invincikids
Andre’ has 25+ years experience in non profit program development and organizational growth in Healthcare Technology, Early Childhood Development, Affordable Housing, Resource Conservation, and Historic Preservation. His career has focused on bringing equity to under served and resourced groups. constituents, partners, staff, and board members to drive organizational success.
He is a firm believer that successful organization cultures come from building cohesive teams of all stakeholders including donors, constituents, partners, staff, and board members that are able to achieve and celebrate goals.
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Laura Nally
Assistant Professor
Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes
Yale School of Medicine
My personal experiences with type 1 diabetes for the past 33 years motivated me to become a pediatric endocrinologist and conduct research to help individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). My primary research interest involves studying how the macronutrient intake impacts metabolism and hormonal responses to hypoglycemia in youth with T1D. In addition, I have also contributed to numerous projects aimed at managing exercise for both youth and adults with type 1 diabetes. Further, I have become particularly interested in studying how individuals overcome psychosocial obstacles for patients and families with T1D. Overall, my goal is to conduct research to improve adherence, optimize glycemic management, decrease long-term complications, and improve psychological well-being in the pediatric and adult T1D population.
Yale School of Medicine
Nicolas Meade (he/they) is a trans-identified clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. He is an attending psychologist at the Yale Pediatric Gender Program, where he serves on an interdisciplinary team of professionals to support youth and their families in navigating their gender journeys. Dr. Meade's research focuses on novel virtual reality interventions for trans and gender expansive youth and young adults to support community connection.
Children's Hospital Colorado
Abraham Homer
Gaming Technology Specialist
Children's Hospital Colorado
Abraham Homer is the Gaming Technology Specialist & Supervisor at Children's Hospital Colorado. In his role he uses technology such video games and Virtual Reality to help hospitalized children and augment existing medical treatments, while also acting as a consultant and XR subject expert for clinicians, providers and developers.
KindVR
Simon Robertson
Founder
KindVR
Simon Robertson is the founder and lead developer at KindVR. Over the last nine years, he has worked with pediatric hospitals to provide custom VR therapies to help patients mitigate pain and stress. He leads a team developing custom virtual reality experiences for specific medical procedures and conditions. Simon works with research hospitals to develop clinical trials and ongoing VR therapy programs for their patients. KindVR has participated in 15 clinical trials and now provides VR support to patients at over 70 Children’s Hospitals.
Stanford University
Conference Co-Chair
Behavioral Neuroscientist
Stanford University
Walter Greenleaf is a neuroscientist and a medical technology developer working at Stanford University. With over three decades of research and development experience, Walter is considered a leading authority in the field of digital medicine and medical virtual reality technology.
Research Focus:
Walter’s current research focus is on developing computer supported clinical products, with a specific emphasis on applying virtual reality and digital health technology to address difficult problems in behavioral and physical medicine such as Post-traumatic Stress, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke, Addictions, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
His early research was on age-related changes in the neuroendocrine system and the effects on human behavior.
Academic Positions:
Walter is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s MediaX Program, a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and the Director of Technology Strategy at the University of Colorado National Mental Health Innovation Center. He previously served as the Director of the Mind Division, Stanford Center on Longevity, where his focus was on age-related changes in cognition.
Medical Product Development:
Walter has designed and developed numerous clinical systems over the last thirty-five years, including products in the fields of: surgical simulation, 3D medical visualization, telerehabilitation, clinical informatics, clinical decision support, point-of-care clinical data collection, ergonomic evaluation technology, automatic sleep-staging systems, psychophysiological assessment, and simulation-assisted rehabilitation technologies, as well as digital eHealth products for behavioral medicine.
Academic Leadership:
Walter is the Co-founder and Board Chair for the International Virtual Reality Health Association (IVRHA).
He helped establish the California State University Center for Disability Solutions and the International Society of Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR). Walter is a scientific advisor and grant reviewer for the U.S. Public Health Service, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), NASA, and the U.S. Department of Education (DoED). He has served as the Principal Investigator for research projects funded by the NIH and by NASA.
Corporate Management:
Walter founded and served as CEO for Greenleaf Medical Systems, a medical product development company; InWorld Solutions, a company specializing in the therapeutic use of virtual worlds for behavioral health care; and Virtually Better, a company that develops virtual environments for the treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. Walter was the founding Chief Science Officer for Pear Therapeutics.
Academic Journals:
Walter is an Associate Editor for three academic journals: JMIR Mental Health, the Journal of Virtual Reality in Medicine, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Current Board Positions:
Walter serves on the Board of Directors for Brainstorm: The Stanford Laboratory for Brain Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship; for Cognitive Leap, a company that develops mental health solutions for children; and for Sine Wave, the developer of Sine Space, a multi-user online Unity 3D-based virtual world platform. He is currently the technology and neuroscience advisor to several early-stage medical product companies.
Walter earned a Doctorate in Neuro and Bio-Behavioral Sciences from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was awarded a NIMH Graduate Fellowship.
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Garrett Ash
Assistant Professor
General Internal Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
I am an exercise physiologist leading clinical trials and quality improvement projects focused on implementing and repurposing wearable devices as digital therapeutics. After predoctoral work employing 24hr ambulatory blood pressure to study exercise response, I moved to the behavioral field and completed a postdoc where I visualized and human-delivered integrated biosensor data to promote behavioral change, as a lead developer and health coach in studies of personalized sleep and alcohol feedback study among heavy drinking young adults. As a PI, my focus is virtual reality-based peer group exercise and coping skills training for youth with type 1 diabetes, as well as biometrically-driven exercise coaching for adults with type 1 diabetes. I am also active in several national groups optimizing the implementation of consumer grade wearable devices in the consumer and healthcare spaces. These include the Sports Technology Quality Framework by the Sports Tech Research Network, and two of the Veterans Affairs Office of Connected Care Virtual Care CORE quality improvement and evaluation projects.
Preview Labs
Bernard Francois
Founder
PreviewLabs
Bernard Francois is the founder of PreviewLabs – started in 2010, PreviewLabs develops prototypes using game technology, and has offices in Connecticut, near Ghent, Belgium, in Buenos Aires, and in Montreal. PreviewLabs facilitates brainstorm sessions for its clients and turns ideas into interactive prototypes, allowing to evaluate ideas early on. Bernard oversaw the development of prototypes for over 250 different concepts, for clients including Google R&D, Yale University, and the NIH, but also a large amount of startups seeking to develop new products. Bernard is also the chairman of FLEGA, the Flemish Games Association, and founder of GameDevCT, an organization aiming to connect and grow the games industry and games industry ecosystem in Connecticut.
Innerworld
Founder and CEO
Innerworld
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate
Vanderbilt University
Noah Robinson is founder and CEO of Innerworld, Inc, a social virtual world and clinical research platform that delivers Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™. This novel transdiagnostic peer support intervention is accessible through both immersive VR and flat screens (Mac, PC, iOS). Innerworld’s clinical approach was translated out of Noah’s doctoral research at Vanderbilt University under the mentorship of world-renowned CBT expert Dr. Steven Hollon.
To date, Innerworld has provided evidence-based intervention for over 30,000 people. After launching on the Meta Quest store in November, Innerworld became the #1 rated free/subscription application that month.
In addition to being CEO of Innerworld and a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Vanderbilt University, Noah is also a member of Meta’s Reality Labs Advisory Council where he provides perspective, expertise and insights that inform Reality Labs’ vision for building the metaverse.
Neuro Rehab VR
Chief Executive Officer
Neuro Rehab VR
Advisor
Future Sight AR
Veena Somareddy is the CEO of Neuro Rehab VR, a VR healthcare start-up aimed at building virtual reality therapy exercises for physical therapy. Her accolades include being recognized as a Top Innovator in North Texas, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas honoree, and featured in Forbes and Cosmopolitan. She is also the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant and one of the 10 start-ups chosen to participate in the first Amazon Healthcare Accelerator. Using her many years of research and development experience in VR and AR she is helping to connect technology and healthcare to enhance patient care and rehabilitation outcomes greatly.
Yale School of Medicine
Research Scientist
Director, play4REAL XR Lab at Yale
Deputy Director, Yale Center for Health & Learning Games/play2PREVENT Lab
Yale School of Medicine
Editor-in-Chief, Games for Health Journal
Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, is a Research Scientist and the Director of the play4REAL XR Lab at the Yale School of Medicine, which focuses on the development and evaluation of theory and evidence-informed videogame interventions using XR technology. For the past 12 years, her research has focused on the development and testing of health behavior change and education videogames and has published frequently on developing, evaluating, and implementing game interventions. She has worked on games that have focused on topics including e-cigarette prevention, tobacco use prevention, risk reduction in adolescents, HIV/STI prevention, HIV/STI testing, empowering Black teen girls on their sexual health, alcohol use prevention and harm reduction in teens, bystander intervention, LGBTQ bullying, and school climate.
Dr. Hieftje is a third-year K12 Scholar in the Yale Scholars in Implementation Science program (YSIS) at the Yale School of Medicine funded by NHLBI, a program designed to train junior faculty in implementation science. Her research focuses on better understanding the factors associated with successful implementation of game interventions in schools.
Dr. Hieftje is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Games for Health Journal, the premier journal in the field of serious games for health.
Yale School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine
Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
Director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital
Asher M. Marks, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine and practicing pediatric hematologist/oncologist. He is the Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology and also serves as the Director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer program for Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
While his clinical research frequently focuses on the care and treatment of children with brain tumors, his role as the director of the AYA program has led to the development of a virtual reality-based support group for adolescents and young adults with cancer. In collaboration with Foretell Reality, a clinical trial was launched in the fall of 2019, with very exciting early findings.
In addition, Dr. Marks serves on the Board of Directors for Child’s Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children in hospitals and domestic violence shelters, through the power of play.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
James Dean
Immersive Technology Applications Engineer
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
James Dean is an Immersive Technology Applications Engineer at Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Lab. James has experience developing immersive tech for several fields including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research, site feasibility analyses, unmanned underwater operations, and emergency care training and operation. He has extensive expertise with Unity and Unreal Engine, including GPU and graphic render programming, as well as expertise with XR hardware.
IVRHA
Executive Director and Founder
IVRHA
Robert is the Executive Director and Founder of IVRHA (International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association).
In 2009, Robert started Cool Blue Media by organizing the first social media conference on the east coast of the United States, leading to the publication of the text book, "The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories and Perspectives" and shortly thereafter the only printed magazine covering social media, The Social Media Monthly. In May 2016, he launched VRVoice.co, a content vertical exploring virtual reality in the enterprise. In 2017, Robert started the largest annual conference on virtual reality and healthcare with events taking place both in the US and Europe.
Prior to 2009, Robert was the Senior Director of Global Strategy and Development of IT at Conservation International (CI). Robert joined CI in 2000 to take responsibility for connecting all of CI’s forty field offices to the Internet with broadband connectivity. During his 10 year tenure, he built an international staff of 25 IT professionals.
Robert has over ten years of additional work experience as a systems and sales engineer with various companies including CMGI, Hughes Network Systems, ioWave and Raytheon. Robert has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova University, a master’s degree in environmental science and public policy from Johns Hopkins University, and is ABD at George Mason University.
BAR (that's the name!)
254 Crown St, New Haven, CT 06511
Tel: 203-495-8924
Robert Fine
with Dr. Kimberly Hieftje, Yale School of Medicine
and Dr. Asher Marks, Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Walter Greenleaf
Dr. Hunter Hoffman
Travis Eriksen
Andre Bollaert
Erin Williamson
with Kate D'Adamo, Reframe Health and Justice
and Kendra Albert, Harvard CyberLaw Clinic
Dr. Nicholas Meade
Lindsay Watson PT, MPT
Dr. Martin de Santos
Dr. Varun Choudhary
Dr. Juan Pablo Hourcade
Dr. Thomas Murray
Abraham Homer
James Dean
Dr. Linda Ciavarelli
Dr. Andrew Hashikawa
Scott Xiao
Kaitlyn O'Connor, Esq.
Simon Robertson
Dr. Susan Persky
Noah Robinson
Dr. Garrett Ash
Veena Somareddy
Dr. Skip Rizzo
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