News & Press

Friday, November 11, 2022

XR Pediatrics has released its First Newsletter. Newsletters will be released quarterly and feature all the amazing things XR Pediatrics has done in the past few months! We hope you enjoy!

Friday, November 11, 2022

On November 11th, 2022 Drs. Hieftje and Marks were presenters at Columbia's annual Innovations in Simulation Summit in New York City.

Friday, October 28, 2022

XR Pediatrics Co-Director Dr. Asher Marks, MD, and other Yale collaborators, were just published in JMIR Publications! Dr. Marks' research focuses on infection prevention with Virtual Reality headset use and finding appropriate disinfection procedures. As VR applications in medical settings continue to rise, this research is key to ensuring safe patient use. Dr. Mark's research has the potential to lead to more sanitary standards in the use of immersive technologies. Read his research here!

Friday, October 28, 2022

On the week of October 17-21, XR Pediatrics Co-Directors Dr. Asher Marks, MD, and Dr. Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, were in Lisbon attending the AWE and IVRHA conferences as speakers. These events were great ways to spread awareness of XR Pediatrics’ advancements and to share how we’ve been applying immersive technologies into clinical settings. Dr. Marks spoke regarding his use of Foretell Reality for virtual group therapy and the benefits of said model. Dr. Hieftje held a track at AWE to discuss the use of immersive technologies in educational and professional training. These events were a great experience and we look forward to continue sharing our work.

Friday, October 28, 2022

XR Pediatrics has brought on two new team members!

Jake Shaker is our new Program Manager! A UCONN graduate, Jake brings over five years of experience recruiting and interacting with clinical populations in Human Subjects Research at Yale University. Jake also brings audio engineering, sound design, and music composition experience to the game design team.

Joshua is a postgraduate associate with a focus on video game design. Joshua graduated from Quinnipiac University with his BA in Game Design and Development. Joshua’s skillset will help us to create more engaging and fun experiences! Joshua is also leading XRPeds social media efforts to better communicate XRPeds work and accomplishments.

We're so happy to welcome both Jake and Josh to the XR Pediatrics family and are so excited for their help on all our exciting projects!

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Dr. Hieftje chaired the Remote Collaboration, Training & Education Track at the 2022 AWE EU conference in Lisbon. Many in attendance joined her for five exciting talks!

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Dr. Marks was joined by James Watson from the Glimpse Group, the team behind the platform XRPeds uses in our VR support group projects, called Foretell Reality. In his talk, he presented how pediatric cancer patients benefit from VR-based support group therapy.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

On October 19th 2022 Drs. Hieftje and Marks presented "An Overview of the XR in Pediatrics Initiative at the Yale School of Medicine" at the 4th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Europe Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Dr. Hieftje was the first speaker of a new webinar series called "Meet the Author," hosted by the Adolescent Network for the Society of Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT). She discussed past and current work on Invite Only VR.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Dr. Ijeoma Opara speaks live on camera about the importance of representation in games and how InvestiDate can make a difference in the dating lives of Black teen girls: Watch the news spot and read the summary here!