The Otago Branch of the New Zealand Psychological Society together with the University of Otago are proud to host:
Clinical Virtual Reality: A Brief Review of the Future! University of Otago William Evans Fellow, Professor Albert (Skip) Rizzo (University of Southern California). Dunedin 12 April 2017, 9.30am – 4pm, The Mark Parker Seminar Room, Ground floor, University College (Unicol); Dunedin Campus, University of Otago Virtual reality (VR) has undergone a transition in the past 20 years that has taken it from the realm of expensive toy and into that of functional technology. Revolutionary advances in the underlying VR enabling technologies (i.e., computation speed and power, graphics and image rendering technology, display systems, interface devices, immersive audio, haptics tools, tracking, intelligent agents, and authoring software) have supported development resulting in more powerful, low-cost PC-driven VR systems. Such advances in technological “prowess” and accessibility have provided the hardware platforms needed for the conduct of human clinical treatment and research within more usable, useful, and lower cost VR systems. This presentation will provide an overview of the many forms of Virtual Reality that have been applied across a diverse range of clinical conditions and research questions. This will include a brief overview of the use of VR for Exposure Therapy for anxiety disorders and with PTSD in military personnel, followed by a summary of research and clinical applications of VR for pain distraction, cognitive and motor assessment/rehabilitation. The focus will then shift to clinically-oriented work with intelligent Virtual Humans agents that can engage real human users in a credible fashion. This has driven their use as “Virtual Patients” for clinical training of novice healthcare providers, experiential social training with persons on the Autism Spectrum, and as online healthcare support guides. For more information on this work, please visit our website: http://medvr.ict.usc.edu/ and YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlbertSkipRizzo/videos Objectives: • The learner will be able to describe the definition of Virtual Reality (VR) and the different ways that people can engage and interact with VR environments. • The learner will be able to explain the specific rationales for the use of VR in the assessment and rehabilitation of a wide range of clinical disorders (i.e., ADHD, PTSD, Alzheimer’s, Phobias, Stroke, addictions, etc.). • The learner will be able to understand the relevant issues involved in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of virtual environments for use in clinical assessment and intervention. • The learner will be able to describe the applications where virtual reality has been used in the study, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of cognitive, psychological, motor processes. Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Director of Medical Virtual Reality - Institute for Creative Technologies; Research Professor - Dept. of Psychiatry and School of Gerontology, Los Angeles, CA, USA;
[email protected] My background in Clinical Psychology, Neuropsychology, and Clinical Research, integrated with Virtual Reality (VR) system creation puts me in a unique position to carry out my role on this program. I have extensive expertise in the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality simulation systems for both basic and applied clinical science research commencing in 1995 when I started the first Clinical Virtual Reality lab at USC.
No charge for attendance, but registration is essential Koha (donations) will help us meet our costs (either online, at the time of registration, at the venue or by internet credit to the NZPsS account (02-0560-0262471-03) - Ref “SKIPDN2017” )
Click here to register: https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/clinical-virtual-reality-a-briefreview-of-the-future-tickets-33137071874 Sponsored by University of Otago Departments of Psychology and Information Science and School of Physiotherapy
