Virtual Reality (VR) - Is it revolutionizing Healthcare?

All across the world there has been an increase in the uses of Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare. Some say it's set to revolutionize this industry. With applications in Medical training, Patient treatment, Medical marketing and Disease awareness among others this meetup will explore some uses and showcase examples of this technology in practice.

Agenda

5:30 PM - Arrival and Networking
6:00PM - 7:30 PM Talks and Discussion
7:30PM - 8:00 PM Food and networking

Talk 1:
Can VR be used to augment surgical training as well as patient information?
Dr. Bibhas Roy - Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon - Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Talk 2:
Pushing The Senses: VR and AR for Next Gen Healthcare Training
Jane McConnell - EON Reality

Talk 3:
Don’t go it alone: Mixed Reality Therapy to keep vulnerable clients grounded in the present
Professor David Roberts, Professor of Telepresence, University of Salford

Talk 4:
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Alcoholism Relapse Prevention
Rigina Skeva - PHD Student - University of Manchester

Speakers Bio

Dr. Bibhas Roy is the clinical lead for the Manchester Shoulder and Elbow unit with 7 surgeons making it one of the largest unit in UK. Also the clinical lead for elective work in the Orthopaedic unit in Manchester Foundation Trust. As a fellowship trained, full time specialist Shoulder and Elbow surgeon since 2006, Bibhas wants to continue offering my patients an effective and efficient service. Honorary lecturer for Salford University and teaches in the Musculoskeletal Masters course as well as at the Salford Shoulder Series.

Past roles have included positions of Director of R&D and clinical lead for IT and roles with the Strategic Health Authority within the Health Informatics Clinical Advisory Team (HICAT) from 1998 to 2013. Innovation is a specific interest, and Bibhas regional innovation funded PROMs 2.0 project had been adopted by 14 other organisations by 2013 (Primarily FTs, but also CGGs, and Mental Health Trusts) making it one of the most successful innovation projects in the country. The HSJ, named Bibhas as a top UK NHS innovator in its first ever list of top NHS innovators in 2013.

Jane McConnell

Jane is the Marketing Executive for EON Reality, a global company with 19 years' blue chip client experience in VR, AR, MR and mobile solutions. She is currently supporting marketing and product development for world's first one-stop multi-hardware XR software platform, The AVR Platform.

Prof. David Roberts

David innovates and studies VR for shared experience, more recently in the context of mental health. He is passionate that vulnerable people should not go it alone into virtual reality, loosing site of what is real and who is there to support them. To address this, David’s team have developed a range of mixed reality exposure therapy solutions from phone-based VR to immersive clinical spaces and have been the first to use neuroimaging to look inside the brain during VR exposure therapy. He provided a phone-based VR solution that Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust are using to treat some of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack. He has over 100 academic publications, chaired numerous VR and simulation conferences, designed numerous shared immersive VR centres and for five years ran the EPSRC National Industrial Centre for VR.

Rigina Skeva

Rigina is an IT graduate and, later on, software engineer. She's gained valuable experience in back and front end development as well as several computer science fields. However, Virtual Reality (VR) immediately captured her interest and imagination. Apart from being a highly immersive and entertaining tool in the games industry, VR can constitute an innovative tool for psychology, too. Having the opportunity as a current PhD student to specialise on VR medical applications for psychological rehabilitation is more than a research project to her.