News & Press

Monday, December 16, 2024

Dr. Asher Marks presented a talk titled, "The Yale Center for Immersive Technologies in Pediatrics: Using Immersive Technologies to Improve the Health and Well-Being of Youth and Young Adults," at the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Grand Rounds. His talk explored applications of XR in healthcare and education and detailed the various ongoing projects within the lab and center.

Friday, December 6, 2024

The experience Si PHI (Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experiences: Healthcare Intervention for Depression) led by Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS with team members Kimberly Hieftje, PhD; Asher Marks, MD; and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD, wins "Audience Choice" at the 2024 Yale Life Science Pitchfest. The 2024 Yale Life Science PitchFest showcased Yale's most promising life science innovations from 34 Yale faculty-led teams. Eight Blavatnik-funded startup companies were also showcased at the event. The event, held on December 5, 2024 at 101 College Street in New Haven, served as the semifinals for the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, Yale’s life science accelerator fund supporting the translation of groundbreaking research into innovative healthcare solutions.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Dr. Veronica Weser was invited to speak to the University of Oklahoma's Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in a talk entitled, "Discover how video games, informed by evidence, are created with extended reality technology". Her talk emphasizes the recent projects by XRPeds, the implications of VR in mental health and education, and the benefit of utilizing VR for youth populations.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Postgraduate Associates, Mona Sinha and Skylar Bartush, represented XRPeds at the 2024 Connecticut School Based Health Centers Conference. They showcased our nicotine and marijuana vaping prevention intervention, Invite Only VR: reHASHED.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Dr. Marks and Dr. Mairi Wac (University of Bristol) gave their talk, "Virtual Reality for AYA’s: Shared Challenges and Successes in the UK and US" at the 6th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Europe Symposium. Highlights of their talk include integration of AI with VR surgical training simulations, muscle-stimulating sensors for physiotherapy, VR for storytelling and patient education, and the revolution of surgical training through a neurocognitive approach.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Dr. Hieftje attended the Meta Educators Community Summit in Palo Alto, CA. The summit brought together approximately 70 educators leading the use of immersive technologies in education. Representatives from 26 universities, K-12 institutions, and Meta explored innovative university-level VR initiatives and contributed feedback to shape Meta’s VR education efforts.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Dr. Hieftje was part of a session entitled, “Let’s Get Real: Using Virtual and Extended Reality for Infection Prevention, Control Training and Education of Frontline Staff” at IDWeek 2024 in Los Angeles, CA and discussed the development of our VR videogame intervention focused on reducing infection spread among parents in the NICU setting.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Drs. Hieftje and Marks, as well as composer, Dr. Andrew Schartmann, spoke about the Year of the Cicadas at the Serious Play Conference in Toronto, Canada. The Year of the Cicadas is a VR experience about grief and meaning making over time after the loss of a child.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experience (SI-PHI): Healthcare Intervention for Depression...Led by Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS with team members Kimberly Hieftje, PhD; Asher Marks, MD; and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD. SI-PHI is a cutting-edge tool using hi-definition, immersive visuals and audio to create a simulation of the effects of psychedelic medications to treat depression. SI-PHI hopes to provide the benefits of psychedelic medications without the side effects that make them difficult for patients to tolerate. The potential impact of using extended reality interventions is significant given the large patient population who may benefit, while avoiding the high costs and challenges associated with medications. In addition to winning a YNHHS Innovation Award, the team also pitched and won a prestigious Blavatnik Accelerator Award at the Summit receiving an additional $30,000 to further advance their innovation.