- Lora Appel, PhD
Health, York University, CanadaDr. Lora Appel is an Associate Professor of Health Informatics at the Faculty of Health at York University, Toronto, Canada. She is Adjunct Researcher at Michael Garron Hospital and a Affiliate Scientist at University Health Network, the largest medical research organization in Canada. Lora heads the Prescribing Virtual...
Kate Donovan, PhD
Boston Children's HospitalKate Donovan, PhD is the Clinical Director of Immersive Technologies for the Innovation Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children's Hospital. She is also the Innovation Technology Coordinator for Medicine Patient Services at Boston Children's Hospital and co-founder of Hacking Pediatrics, an annual pediatric focused healthcare hackathon held in...
Mahdi Ebnali, PhD
Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham (MGB)Dr. Mahdi Ebnali is a Research Scientist and Faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital. With a background in Systems Engineering (Ph.D.), Human Factors, and Computer Sciences (M.S.), Dr. Ebnali has developed extensive and multidisciplinary skillsets in tackling scientific and business problems. As a researcher, Dr. Ebnali leverages his expertise...
Jeffrey Gold, PhD
Keck School of Medicine of USCJeffrey I. Gold, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. Dr. Gold, a licensed clinical psychologist, Director Emeritus and Founder of the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic within the comprehensive interdisciplinary...
Harry van Goor, MD, PhD, FRCS
Surgical Education, Radboud University Medical CenterHarry van Goor, MD, PhD, FRCS is a Professor of Surgery and past interim chair of the Department of Primary and Community Care of the Radboud University Medical Center. He has published over 350 peer reviewed papers in a broad field of surgical care, medical device development and...
Walter Greenleaf, PhD
Stanford UniversityWalter Greenleaf PhD. is a neuroscientist and a medical technology developer working at Stanford University. With over 35 years of work focused on developing clinical applications of medical virtual reality technology, Walter is considered a leading authority. Walter is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Virtual...
Rafael Grossmann, MD, MHDS, FACS
General, Trauma and Acute Care, Portsmouth Regional HospitalDr. Rafael Grossmann is a full-time general, trauma, advanced laparoscopic, and robotic surgeon. Originally from Venezuela and trained as a surgeon in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he has practiced in the US for several years. He is deeply interested in the intersection of Innovation Technology in Healthcare and...
Kimberly Hieftje, PhD
Yale University School of MedicineDr. Kimberly Hieftje is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and co-director of XR Pediatrics and the Yale Center for Immersive Technologies in Pediatrics. For the past 14 years, her research has focused on the development, evaluation, and implementation of health and education interventions for youth that utilize XR and game technology....
Hunter Hoffman, PhD
Director of the Virtual Reality Research Center at the Human Photonics Lab at the UWHunter Hoffman, Ph.D. 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 collaborating with the Univ. of Washington, Seattle, Dept of Anesthesiology and Pain Management. He...
Waguih IsHak, MD, FAPA
Cedars-SinaiWaguih William IsHak, MD, FAPA, is a professor and clinical chief of psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai and clinical professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. IsHak has more than 30 years of experience in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology, with specific expertise in...
Rohan Jotwani, MD, MBA
Weill Cornell MedicineRohan Jotwani MD, MBA is a board-certified Anesthesiologist and Pain Medicine specialist, practicing clinically within both fields at Weill Cornell Medical Center.Dr. Jotwani completed his residency in Anesthesiology across three hospitals: NewYork Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He went on to finish his...
Daniel Kraft, MD
Physician-Scientist, Founder of NextMed Health & Digital.Health, Faculty Chair for Medicine, Singularity University, Chair, XPRIZE Health & Pandemic AllianceDaniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard-trained physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, and innovator and is serving as the Chair of the XPRIZE Pandemic & Health Alliance. With over 25 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and healthcare innovation, Kraft has served as faculty chair for Medicine...
Brian Lacy, MD, PhD
Mayo ClinicBrian E. Lacy, Ph.D., M.D., FACG is currently Professor of Medicine and Consultant at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. He is the Program Director of the GI Fellowship, and is Associate Program Director for Scholarly Activities for the Medical Residency Program. He previously worked at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where he was Section Chief...
Martin Lindstrom
CEO of Lindstrom CompanyOne of the world’s leading metaverse experts. He advises such leading tech companies as Uber, Google and GUCCI on innovation in Web 3.0. Martin has cofounded several multibillion start -ups, including YellowPages.com and Hitwise. For 10 years running, Lindstrom has been featured as one of the world’s top...
Omer Liran, MD
Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterDr. Omer Liran is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC). He is a full-stack developer with decades of experience developing various software including an fMRI statistical analyzer, a behavioral health electronic health record system, research applications, artificial neural networks, and...
Robert Louis, MD, FAANS
Hoag Memorial HospitalDr. Louis, MD, FAANS is Empower360 Endowed Chair for Skull Base and Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery and Director of the Skull Base and Pituitary Tumor Program at the Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital. His expertise includes endoscopic and minimally invasive treatment of benign and malignant...
Asher Marks, MD
Yale University School of MedicineMargot Paul, Psy.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral SciencesDr. Margot Paul, a licensed clinical psychologist, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctoral degree from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium in 2022, where she won the award for Outstanding Overall Student...
Susan Persky, PhD
Immersive Simulation Program; Head of Health Communication and Behavior Unit at NHGRI/NIHDr. Susan Persky is an associate investigator and head of the Health Communication and Behavior Unit. She also directs the Immersive Simulation Program (ISP) within the Social and Behavioral Research Branch (SBRB) at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). She earned...
Asheen Rama, MD
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University, Stanford Chariot ProgramDr. Asheen Rama is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University and specializes in pediatric anesthesiology. He completed his residency at UC San Diego followed by a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Boston Children’s Hospital. Since completing an additional fellowship in medical simulation...
Caitlin Rawlins, MSN, RN
Clinical Tech Innovation VA Immersive Program, U.S. Department of Veterans AffairsCaitlin Rawlins has been a nurse for over 12 years, with the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2017, and initiated the first positive distraction-focused virtual reality program for pain and anxiety management in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in her first year of VA practice. She now...
Skip Rizzo, PhD
USC Institute for Creative Technologies for Medical Virtual RealityPsychologist Skip Rizzo conducts research on the design, development and evaluation of virtual reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, and resilience. This work spans the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. Rizzo, whose work using virtual...
Lindsey Ross, MD, MHDS
Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterLindsey Ross, M.D., M.H.D.S. is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, fellowship trained Spine Surgeon and health delivery scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Throughout her career, she has been steadily dedicated to serving under-resourced populations, mentoring minority students, and performing health services research and health policy changes to...
Korak Sarkar, MD, MHDS, FAAN
Neurology and Brain Injury Medicine, Ochsner BioDesign CMIO, Ochsner Health New Orleans VAMC Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation ServiceDr. Korak Sarkar completed his undergraduate education at the Johns Hopkins University where he studied applied mathematics, biomedical engineering and neurosciences. He earned a doctorate of medicine from the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Sarkar completed a neurology residency at the University...
Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS
Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterBrennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, is director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Master's Degree Program in Health Delivery Science. He directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE), a multidisciplinary team that investigates how digital health technologies, including wearable biosensors,...
Karisma Suchak, MD, MHDS
Cedars-Sinai Virtual Medicine ProgramKarisma Kothari, MD is a clinical research coordinator at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE). Here she helps manage and coordinate multiple NIH and non-NIH, virtual reality (VR) focused clinical trials. Closely collaborating with experts from multiple healthcare fields as well as the patients themselves, she strives to explore...
Keith Widmeier, BA, FP-C, CHSE
Center for Simulation, Advanced Education, and Innovation, Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaKeith Widmeier started his healthcare career in Emergency Medical Services. He worked clinically as a Flight Paramedic and transitioned into Paramedic education. Working as a training officer, he helped develop education for the general public, new EMTs and Paramedics, and currently practicing clinicians. Since 2019 he has...
Brenda Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN
Virtual Reality Medical CenterProfessor Dr. Brenda K. Wiederhold, Ph.D., MBA, BCB, BCN is Co-Founder of the Virtual Reality Medical Center (VRMC), with offices in Sorrento Valley, La Jolla and Coronado, California; Qingdao, China; and Brussels, Belgium. Professor Wiederhold is registered as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with the California Board of Psychology, the Belgian...
Melissa Wong, MD
Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterDr. Melissa Wong is an assistant professor in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she holds a joint appointment in the Division of Informatics and also is a staff scientist in the Office of Research on Women's Health at the NIH. She graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in...
Henry Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, MBA
The Ohio State University College of MedicineHenry Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, MBA, is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at The Ohio State University. He is the founding Director of the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research as well as the Research Director in the CDC funded Center for Injury Research and Policy at...