The Society of Digital Psychiatry in collaboration with JMIR Mental Health, a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by JMIR Publications, invites you to a webinar titled Using Immersive Virtual Reality as an Effective Therapy for Depression.
Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders worldwide. Its far-reaching impact underscores its status as a significant public health concern, necessitating advanced research and development to tackle its intricate challenges. In this webinar, Dr Kim Bullock, MD, and Dr Margot Paul, PsyD, will jointly discuss the feasibility, acceptability, tolerability, and efficacy of using an immersive virtual reality device to engage in behavioral activation among adults diagnosed with depression. They will also explore how participant acceptability differs between a more immersive versus simpler device.
Date: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Time: 9 AM PT/12 PM ET
Panelists:
John Torous, MD, MBI; Cofounder, Society of Digital Psychiatry
Dr Torous is the director of the Digital Psychiatry division in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an affiliated teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and member of the academic faculty. He has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences; he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, before pursuing medical school at the University of California, San Diego. Dr Torous completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics, and master’s degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard. He actively investigates the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and 5 book chapters on the subject. Dr Torous serves as the editor-in-chief of JMIR Mental Health.
Kim Bullock, MD
Dr Bullock received her undergraduate degree with honors and distinction in physiology and psychology from the University of California, San Diego (Revelle College), and her medical degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She completed an internship in internal medicine at Washington Hospital in Washington, DC, and a psychiatry residency at Stanford University. She is a diplomat in the subspecialties of behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry and lifestyle medicine. She is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Dr Bullock is the founder and director of Stanford's Neurobehavioral Clinic and Virtual Reality & Immersive Technology (VR-IT) program and laboratory. Her primary clinical research interest is the use of technology for trauma treatment and psychiatric illnesses involving the disruption of bodily perception and function. She also provides support and connects researchers, providers, and developers of immersive technology through the Stanford Psychiatry Immersive Technology Consortium (SPIT-C).
Margot Paul, PsyD
Dr Paul is a licensed psychologist and a clinical assistant professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her doctoral degree from the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium in 2022, where she won the award for Outstanding Overall Student (2021). She completed her clinical psychology doctoral internship at Sepulveda VA in Los Angeles, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford’s School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr Paul began her work on virtual reality in 2017 after joining Dr Kim Bullock’s Virtual Reality-Immersive Technology program. She has worked and consulted with virtual reality companies and local Bay Area startups in the technology and mental health space and has published on her virtual reality work.