The XRA team has been making waves this week with appearances at the 7th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium in Philadelphia, State of the Net in Washington, D.C., and the United Kingdom Delegation in New York City.
New York City, NY – On March 3, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Joan O’Hara, participated in a roundtable hosted by the British Consulate in New York City examining the current landscape of XR technologies applied to mental health. During the roundtable, the discussion centered around a range of topics, including R&D outputs, commercialization, policy, and regulations in the UK and US. The group explored ways that the UK and US could collaborate to promote the global adoption of XR technology in the healthcare sector. Participants included officials from the UK NIHR and Innovate UK, as well as British XR developers and entrepreneurs. The meeting was attended by XRA member company, Google, as well.
Philadelphia, PA – This past weekend, Senior Vice President of Research & Best Practices, Stephanie Montgomery and Program Development Manager, Peirce Clark attended the 7th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium, organized by IVRHA and hosted at Penn Medicine. The event was a huge success, drawing a large crowd of professionals working on XR solutions for improved health outcomes. Attendees were treated to a powerful showcase of what healthcare is doing with XR technology in the areas of therapy, learning and development, wellness, and brain surgery.
The symposium featured many presentations that focused on the return on investment for implementing XR Solutions in hospitals, supported by data demonstrating the technology’s positive impact on patient retention, reduced hospital time, and a decrease in opioid use for pain management. The event also featured many XRA members, who exhibited their innovative ideas and participated in the symposium. The team at XRA is looking forward to exploring more healthcare use cases, challenges, and best practices. Members interested in learning more about XR in healthcare are encouraged to attend XRA’s Healthcare Working Group to dive deeper into this rapidly evolving field.
Washington, D.C. – On March 6, XRA CEO, Elizabeth Hyman, and Director of Public Policy, Miranda Lutz, joined U.S. lawmakers, government officials, Congressional staff, civil society, academics, and industry experts at the annual State of the Net conference in Washington, DC. The conference, hosted by the Internet Education Foundation, is one of the premier internet policy conferences in the U.S. and focuses on a wide range of the most importance policy debates for the tech industry.
Immersive technology was highlighted in one of the first keynotes of the day with Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter discussing the need to ensure competition even in nascent markets like XR. However, generative AI received the bulk of the attention at this year’s conference and discussions around the need to develop risk-based frameworks for governing the use of such systems dominated many conversations. Another theme of the day was the need for a national data protection regime, which was discussed in almost every panel from kids’ online safety to Section 230 reform, from government surveillance to cybersecurity. This year’s conference reinforced the growing momentum behind legislation aimed at safeguarding children’s privacy and safety on the internet.
