Abstract: Since the mid-1990s, Clinical Virtual Reality (VR) has evolved from an experimental novelty into a maturing clinical tool with an expanding evidence base across behavioral health, neurorehabilitation, and functional restoration. This use of VR simulation technology has produced encouraging results when applied to address the cognitive, psychological, motor, and emotional impairments seen across a wide range of clinical health conditions. This presentation will provide a model for clinical processes that provides a framework for understanding the trajectory of Clinical VR over the last 30 years as a tool in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, PTSD, pain management, autism, ADHD, and in the rehabilitation of stroke, brain injury, and other neurologically-based conditions. Time permitting, the presentation will also include some discussion of the advances in Virtual Human (VH) and Conversational AI technology for clinical training, healthcare coaching, and clinical interviewing. While science never sleeps and much R&D is still needed to advance this area, the current state of the literature is positive and technological advances have reduced the costs and complexity of delivering this type of care in everyday practice. I will argue (with research findings, patient testimonials, and clinical implementation use cases) that Clinical VR/VH applications are poised to become essential assets in the future of healthcare research and practice, with growing influence and adoption across a spectrum of patient populations. This trend will be amplified with the integration of AI into the VR system design, development, and evaluation process, along with multimodal sensing to drive bi-directional interaction and stimulus delivery based on user state.

Bio: Skip Rizzo is a Clinical Psychologist, and directs of the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) Medical VR Lab. He is a research professor in both the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and the School of Gerontology. Over the last 30 years, he has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of VR systems across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in healthy and clinical populations. This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, psychedelic therapy, suicide prevention, and other clinical conditions. Perhaps best known for his empirically validated use of VR in the treatment of combat and sexual trauma related PTSD, he has a long history of working in an interdisciplinary fashion with computer scientists, graphic artists, software engineers, and medical/industry leaders & in 2023, received the IEEE VR Lifetime Achievement Award. For more info on his work: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlbertSkipRizzo/videos