Hunter Hoffman gratefully got his VR start at Tom Furness’ HITLab in 1993, and Hoffman is currently a research scientist in Eric Seibel’s Human Photonics Lab in ME at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Hoffman originated the technique of using immersive VR pain distraction to reduce acute pain (e.g., pediatric burn patients during wound cleaning) with Dave Patterson, recently applied to severely burned children with Walter Meyers MD. 1) Hoffman designed SnowWorld, the first VR world designed for treating pain 2) SpiderWorld with tactile feedback (for treating spider phobia), 3) World Trade Center World (with JoAnn Difede, built by Howard Abrams), 4) VR Mindfulness Skills learning World (by BigEnvironments.com) 5) the Magula robot-like goggle holder (for burn patients who cannot wear a VR helmet) 6) magnet friendly VR goggles for fMRI brain scans. Hoffman is on the scientific advisory board of BehaVR.com, and appeared in the January 2020 issue of National Geographic Magazine issue focusing on Pain, www.vrpain.com.
The Golden Age of VR Analgesia
Keynotes
8.30 pm (CEST)
Thursday, September 23