Geneva University Hospitals (HUG)
Dr Oliver Kannape is the founding Director of the Virtual Medicine Center (VMC) at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). As first center of its kind, the VMC is integrating XR technology across HUG with a focus on patient care, clinical research, and medical education. Oliver’s tenure as Scientific Coordinator at MindMaze has further seen him pioneer XR applications for chronic pain, refractory breathlessness, and substance use disorder. These roles allow Oliver to bridge academia, industry, and healthcare to drive medical XR innovation.
Translational Research:
As a cognitive scientist, Oliver has a broad training and research background combining Virtual and Augmented Reality, motion capture, and neural interface technology with experimental approaches from psychobiology and cognitive neuroscience. His research has progressed from a focus on the neuroscience of multisensory perception, sensorimotor control, and corporeal awareness, during his PhD at EPFL, to applying their principles in the clinical domains of neuroprosthetics (at MIT), digital therapeutics (MindMaze), and medical XR (VMC). Oliver’s experiences from an early career award from the Swiss National Science Foundation to over a decade of translational research using XR technologies, uniquely positioned him to become the founding Director of the Virtual Medicine Centre at the Geneva University Hospitals.
Editorial Affiliations:
Oliver is a founding member of the American Medical Extended Reality Association (AMXRA) and member of its journal’s inaugural editorial advisory board (Journal for Medical Extended Reality, JMXR). He is also associate editor for Assistive Technology, the journal of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA).
University of Manitoba
Kimberly Workum
Senior Instructor
College of Nursing
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba
Kimberly Workum is a nursing educator and leader in the field of simulation and VR/AR/XR technology. As the Director of Digital Strategies and Senior Instructor at the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, she has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of nursing education.
Kimberly's credentials include a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Charles Sturt University, an Adult Education Diploma from Red River Community College, and a Master of Education from Charles Sturt University. She is also certified as a Canadian Certified Nurse Educator and is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator.
Kimberly has held various positions at the University of Manitoba, including Director of Skills, Director of Simulation Centre, and is currently the Director of Digital Strategies and CCA Centre. She and her team launched a successful Virtual Reality (VR) program in the College of Nursing's high-volume undergraduate program, where students have spent over 1000 hours in VR this year. She has also incorporated VR/AR/XR technology into other programs within the College of Nursing and Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. Recently launching a high stakes nursing competency assessment conducted in VR.
This Centre is based in Manilla Philippines for foreign-trained nurses moving to Manitoba to access. Kimberly is an active member of several nursing, simulation, and XR organizations. Her dedication to nursing education has earned her numerous awards, including the Association of Regulated Nurses Award of Excellence in Nursing Administration, the Outstanding Nursing Unit, Program, or Interprofessional Team Award for Simulation, and the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences CPD Educator of the Year.
With her expertise in simulation and VR/AR/XR technology, Kimberly is paving the way for innovative and immersive learning in healthcare education and training.
Yale School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine
Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
Director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital
Asher M. Marks, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine and practicing pediatric hematologist/oncologist. He is the Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology and also serves as the Director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer program for Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
While his clinical research frequently focuses on the care and treatment of children with brain tumors, his role as the director of the AYA program has led to the development of a virtual reality-based support group for adolescents and young adults with cancer. In collaboration with Foretell Reality, a clinical trial was launched in the fall of 2019, with very exciting early findings.
In addition, Dr. Marks serves on the Board of Directors for Child’s Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children in hospitals and domestic violence shelters, through the power of play.
H’ability
Marie-Odile McKEENEY is the CEO and co-founder of H'ability, an innovative startup focused on virtual reality solutions for rehabilitation. With a background in computer engineering, she combines her technical expertise with a passion for immersive technologies to enhance patient care. H'ability offers a gamified, portable VR platform used by healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists and occupational therapists, to help in the motor and cognitive recovery of patients affected by strokes, trauma, or chronic conditions like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
H'ability has partnered with major healthcare institutions, including the CHU d’Angers, to ensure their solutions meet clinical needs. The platform allows patients to engage in therapeutic exercises in an interactive, motivating environment, aiming to reduce pain perception and speed up rehabilitation.
NextGenSurgery
Dr. Richard Hart is a visionary leader and an internationally recognized expert in Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic, and General Surgery. With a career spanning over three decades, and having the surgical service he created designated a Centre of Excellence by Cancer Care Ontario.
Dr. Hart holds degrees from York University and the University of Western Ontario where he also completed General Surgery residency and fellowship training in HPB and Transplantation with the Multi-Organ Transplant Program and a further year as clinical fellow, overseas post Hammersmith Hospital in London, UK. He is a proud recipient of
multiple awards, reflecting his contributions to surgery and medical education.
With passions colliding, he is integrating cutting-edge neurotechnology, bci, and
psychophysiological assessment into the training ecosystem of Surgery culminating in the operating room. His pioneering work with NextGenSurgery Inc. aims to create a new paradigm in surgical education, focusing on developing elite performance in stress resilient surgeons and OR teams to address the problem of preventable harm.
The program and its DNA come from his own experiences and teachings as an elite athlete, Dr. Hart competed internationally for Canada in freestyle wrestling before becoming a surgeon. His unique perspective and experiences in optimal performance combined with scalable wearable tech and XR are at the heart of his IoSxT Theory, which will be presented at SHIFT, using neurotechnology and bci to train the bidirectional flow of information to manage the requisite biobehavioral, cognitive, affective and technical skills for elite performance in critical moments using data
science. Positioning him as a thought leader in the field, recognized for his surgical training innovations.
Dr. Hart’s passion extends beyond his professional life—he is also a dedicated father who enjoys spending time with his two sons, exploring life's realities and wonders while instilling a philosophy of lifelong learning.
His commitment and passion for excellence, both in his professional endeavors and personal life, drives his relentless pursuit of innovation and the outer limits of human possibility.
HirLan
Virginia has thirty-nine years of experience in the areas of product design, Customer Centered
Participatory Design processes, and product lifecycle management. She is also known in the Human Computer Interaction and Usability Communities for her innovative techniques for collecting and incorporating user/customer feedback throughout the product lifecycle. In July 2014, Virginia founded and established the HirLan Institute of Human Factors with labs in Carlsbad, California and a Consortium arrangement in London, UK. HirLan has been supporting Top Ten pharma/medical device companies, as well as start-ups with consulting and testing services for the last 15 years. These services are in conjunction with their clients’ FDA 510(k) and CE mark applications, as well as establishing Human Factors Processes and SOPs.
Virginia holds a PhD in Cognitive-Experimental Psychology from SUNY Binghamton, and a Master of
Science (ABT) in Applied Technology, Systems Science from SUNY Binghamton.
MYND Therapeutics
Michael is a Canadian serial entrepreneur with nine start-ups under his belt and more than 25
years of experience in technology, innovation, business and creativity. Currently he is the
Founder and CEO of MYND Therapeutics, a Vancouver-based digital health company that makes novel digital therapeutics to improve access, delivery, affordability, experience and health outcomes for everyone. MYND combines science, clinical practice, AI, immersive technologies, gamification and story-telling to deliver digital therapeutics that democratize healthcare and digitize medicine for the benefit of patients, providers and payers. Michael has been in the VR/AR/XR space since 2017.
Previously, Michael was the Founder and CEO of INTERFACE Health, the world’s first truly virtual digital health technology accelerator that grew from 50 members to +5,000 members in less than two years. Michael advised, mentored and worked with over 750 digital health startups from around the world. He was also the founding CEO of SANOTRON- Canada’s Centre for Wireless and Digital Health Innovation, a national health tech accelerator.
With more than 15 years of experience in digital health, Michael was recognized as one of the
Top 50 Most Influential Voices in Healthcare in May 2022 by Medika Life from New York. Remarkable scientists, physicians, innovators and influencers like Dr. Junaid Bajwa at Microsoft, Dr. Cheryl Pegus at Walmart, John Nosta at Nosta Labs, Dr. Allyson Ocean at Weill Cornell Medicine and others made the cut. In 2017 Michael was recognized as a Champion of Innovation by the BC Institute of Technology.
Prior to his ventures in digital health, Michael spend five years in the digital media industry in
Vancouver also known as “Hollywood North” and more than a decade in the Internet, direct marketing and advertising and mobile. He was the founding President of DigiBC, Canada’s largest digital media and wireless industry association where he worked closely with world- class talent and global brands in video games, animation and VFX such as EA, Disney, PIXAR, Ubisoft, Image Engine, SONY Pictures Imageworks, TELUS and others.
University of Bristol
Mairi Deighan is a biomedical engineer currently in the final months of her doctoral studies at the University of Bristol, England. Her PhD research focuses on investigating the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of VR technology in teenage and young adult oncology. During her PhD, Mairi has engaged in collaborative efforts with clinicians, healthcare professionals, and, more recently, a group of young people diagnosed with cancer. Together, they co-designed novel VR applications tailored for cancer services in the UK. Her PhD is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Mairi’s passion for VR technology stemmed from the research experience obtained during her master’s degree. She developed and tested a VR application designed to evaluate the sound properties of spatialised sound engines. Her overarching goal was to create a virtual hearing assessment for children dealing with single-side deafness. Since then, Mairi has conducted research exploring the use of social virtual reality platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting this work at CHI 2023. Her work promises to be transformative in the emerging field of VR in paediatric and teenage oncology, with broader implications for the intersection of VR technology and healthcare.
Softcare Studios
CEO
Softcare Studios
Tech entrepreneur focused on digital health and mental well-being, TEDx speaker, and writer. Biologist, Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology, with International academic research experience in pharmacology, organic chemistry, and molecular biology in the fields of oncology and neuronal metabolism. CEO at Softcare Studios, a digital health startup specialized in developing virtual reality solutions for stress management and therapy education in patients undergoing medical treatments. A regular contributor to online magazines on the topics of emerging tech, healthcare, and startup ecosystems. Actively involved in education, communication, and consulting initiatives focused on innovation and social impact.
Radboud University Medical Center
Harry van Goor, MD, PhD, FRCS
Professor of Surgical Education
Digital Innovation Scientist
Past Interim Chair
Department of Primary and Community Care
Radboud University Medical Center
Harry van Goor, MD, PhD, FRCS is a Professor of Surgical Education, an digital innovation scientist, and past interim chair of the Department of Primary and Community Care of the Radboud university medical center. He has published over 400 peer reviewed papers and book chapters in a broad field of surgical care, medical device development and digital technology supported healthcare innovation. He is leading several technology tracks in the ‘fewer Bricks, more Bytes, different Behaviour’ (BBB) programme to improve care and wellbeing of patients, and healthcare workers in- and outside the hospital, including intuitive personalized wayfinding, continuous monitoring with wearable devices and predictive analytics, Ambient Intelligence in the hospital and at home, and Virtual Connected Care. He has chaired a European private-public program R4Heal, that develops and validates an integrated healing system. In this program several VRx projects are performed on acute and chronic pain management, Fit4Surgery and rehabilitation for various purposes in-hospital and @home. Harry van Goor led the team of in-hospital and hospital@home continuous monitoring of vital signs during the COVI19 crisis and the post- COVID VR@home rehabilitation program (COVRehab, COVR2Home). Harry is advisor of several (inter)national start-ups in digital health and of medical device companies and member of the program committee of European Healthcare Design congress in the UK. He has been awarded the Digital Healthcare Professional prize in 2022. He is a Frank Lloyd Wright connoisseur and is passionate about mid-century architecture.
Stanford University
Conference Co-Chair
Behavioral Neuroscientist
Stanford University
Walter Greenleaf is a neuroscientist and a medical technology developer working at Stanford University. With over three decades of research and development experience, Walter is considered a leading authority in the field of digital medicine and medical virtual reality technology.
Research Focus:
Walter’s current research focus is on developing computer supported clinical products, with a specific emphasis on applying virtual reality and digital health technology to address difficult problems in behavioral and physical medicine such as Post-traumatic Stress, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke, Addictions, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
His early research was on age-related changes in the neuroendocrine system and the effects on human behavior.
Academic Positions:
Walter is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s MediaX Program, a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and the Director of Technology Strategy at the University of Colorado National Mental Health Innovation Center. He previously served as the Director of the Mind Division, Stanford Center on Longevity, where his focus was on age-related changes in cognition.
Medical Product Development:
Walter has designed and developed numerous clinical systems over the last thirty-five years, including products in the fields of: surgical simulation, 3D medical visualization, telerehabilitation, clinical informatics, clinical decision support, point-of-care clinical data collection, ergonomic evaluation technology, automatic sleep-staging systems, psychophysiological assessment, and simulation-assisted rehabilitation technologies, as well as digital eHealth products for behavioral medicine.
Academic Leadership:
Walter is the Co-founder and Board Chair for the International Virtual Reality Health Association (IVRHA).
He helped establish the California State University Center for Disability Solutions and the International Society of Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR). Walter is a scientific advisor and grant reviewer for the U.S. Public Health Service, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), NASA, and the U.S. Department of Education (DoED). He has served as the Principal Investigator for research projects funded by the NIH and by NASA.
Corporate Management:
Walter founded and served as CEO for Greenleaf Medical Systems, a medical product development company; InWorld Solutions, a company specializing in the therapeutic use of virtual worlds for behavioral health care; and Virtually Better, a company that develops virtual environments for the treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. Walter was the founding Chief Science Officer for Pear Therapeutics.
Academic Journals:
Walter is an Associate Editor for three academic journals: JMIR Mental Health, the Journal of Virtual Reality in Medicine, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Current Board Positions:
Walter serves on the Board of Directors for Brainstorm: The Stanford Laboratory for Brain Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship; for Cognitive Leap, a company that develops mental health solutions for children; and for Sine Wave, the developer of Sine Space, a multi-user online Unity 3D-based virtual world platform. He is currently the technology and neuroscience advisor to several early-stage medical product companies.
Walter earned a Doctorate in Neuro and Bio-Behavioral Sciences from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was awarded a NIMH Graduate Fellowship.
IVRHA
Executive Director and Founder
IVRHA
Robert is the Executive Director and Founder of IVRHA (International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association).
In 2009, Robert started Cool Blue Media by organizing the first social media conference on the east coast of the United States, leading to the publication of the text book, "The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories and Perspectives" and shortly thereafter the only printed magazine covering social media, The Social Media Monthly. In May 2016, he launched VRVoice.co, a content vertical exploring virtual reality in the enterprise. In 2017, Robert started the largest annual conference on virtual reality and healthcare with events taking place both in the US and Europe.
Prior to 2009, Robert was the Senior Director of Global Strategy and Development of IT at Conservation International (CI). Robert joined CI in 2000 to take responsibility for connecting all of CI’s forty field offices to the Internet with broadband connectivity. During his 10 year tenure, he built an international staff of 25 IT professionals.
Robert has over ten years of additional work experience as a systems and sales engineer with various companies including CMGI, Hughes Network Systems, ioWave and Raytheon. Robert has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova University, a master’s degree in environmental science and public policy from Johns Hopkins University, and is ABD at George Mason University.
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