Alexandre Dumais, MD, PhD
University of Montreal

Dr. Alexandre Dumais, MD, PhD, FRCPC  is a psychiatrist at the Institut National de Psychiatrie Légale Philippe-Pinel, a researcher at the Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal and a clinical professor at the University of Montreal. During his psychiatry residency, he completed a doctorate in biomedical sciences. His main research projects focus on the neurobiology and treatment of patients with schizophrenia. For this, he uses neuroimaging and VR technologies. Dr. Dumais is the author of more than 60 articles, some of which are published in the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry. Recently, he published a review on VR for the treatment of violence in a population with psychosis. He also developed the Avatar Intervention, which uses VR and 3D immersion to reduce hallucinations in treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients. The proof-of-concept has been published in the Schizophrenia Research Journal, and to date, he has treated more than 50 patients with this therapy. Currently, Dr. Dumais is the principal investigator of an important randomized controlled trial comparing Avatar Therapy to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in schizophrenia with treatment refractory hallucinations