The first VR Innovation Lab for Behavioral and Brain Health takes place on October 7th at Brainstorm, Stanford University’s new VR/AR startups laboratory. Selected finalists will pitch their innovative solutions for behavioural health problems to the audience and a panel of expert judges, culminating in a Grand Prize Award and Audience Award.
Following the launch event for Brainstorm on October 6th, the VR/AR Innovation Lab begins at Stanford University School of Medicine on October 7th, as part of the 3rd annual conference of Innovations in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. This year, the focus is entirely on VR/AR technology, where selected innovators from around the country will pitch startup ideas for diagnosing and treating mental or neurological disorders. The lab gives the innovators an opportunity to discuss and improve their ideas before making their final presentations.
Some of the finalist ideas include using VR to simulate environmental triggers for substance use and allow for contextual relapse prevention and skill building, a VR gaming experience that simulates the experience of a person suffering from schizophrenia to promote understanding and empathy, and a VR product to track behaviours and responses to develop a tool for patients with Autism to learn emotion identification and modification.
“Virtual reality and augmented reality offer a lot of potential to transform the way that we as physicians diagnose and treat diseases like PTSD, autism, anxiety, and opioid use,” says Dr. Nina Vasan, Founder and Director of Stanford Brainstorm and Chief Resident in Psychiatry at Stanford. “Brainstorm wanted to capture this potential by identifying the most promising VR/AR entrepreneurs and working with them to develop ventures that are effective from the medical, business, and technological perspectives. The Innovation Lab will showcase these ideas and give audience members the opportunity to work together and help the entrepreneurs improve their ideas.”
The Brainstorm Virtual and Augmented Reality Innovation Lab will be hosted at Stanford’s 3rd Annual Innovations in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Conference on Oct 7th 2017 in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge. For further information visit this web page.
