About

The Immersive Media in Medicine Symposium will bring together students, researchers and clinicians from Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, and Cornell Tech. The symposium will focus on translational research in immersive media (augmented and virtual reality) for use in medicine and healthcare education. Attendees will have the opportunity to present recent work, learn about funding opportunities, and initiate collaborations.

The symposium will take place from December 12th to 13th, in Willard Straight Hall, located at 136 Ho Plaza, Ithaca, NY 14853, in the Memorial Room, which is located on the 4th floor. Participants from Cornell University can register to attend the event in person in Ithaca or can register to view a livestream of the event.

Co-chair JoAnn Difede, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine and founding director of the Virtual Reality Lab and the Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies. A pioneer in using virtual reality for PTSD treatment, her work spans survivors of various traumas, including the 9/11 attacks, combat, and burns. Dr. Difede’s work has also been featured in many popular media outlets, including the New York Times, Crains Business, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, Washingtonian Magazine, National Public Radio, The MacNeill-Lehrer Report, NBC, CBS, ABC with Peter Jennings, and CNN.

Co-chair Andrea Stevenson Won, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and a field faculty member within the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, and the director of the Virtual Embodiment Lab. The lab’s research focuses on how mediated experiences change people’s perceptions, especially in immersive media. She has received funding from the Department of Defense, National Institute on Aging, and NSF to investigate the clinical applications of virtual reality and how nonverbal behavior as rendered in virtual environments affects collaboration and teamwork.

Participants coming from the New York City campuses will leave from the Campus to Campus bus stop at the Weill Medical Campus at 7 a.m. and arrive in Ithaca at lunchtime on the first day. The day will continue with faculty presentations and an evening poster reception featuring students.

The second day will include presentations in the morning and afternoon break-out sessions for focused working groups to discuss details of collaborative projects and grant proposals. Following the end of the day’s events, visiting participants will return to NYC via bus.