XRPeds

28/10/2025

Guess who was in Korea earlier this month? 🇰🇷

Our lab members, Dr. Kimberly Hieftje and Michael Gancz, traveled to Daejeon, Korea, to share their work at two international conferences!

Dr. Hieftje demoed Year of the Cicadas at ISMAR 2025. One of the highlights was the collective creation of the cicada “remembrance tree.” Participants were invited to name a cicada after someone they’ve loved and lost, and added it to the tree—and many did.

Meanwhile, Michael presented their poster at ISMIR 2025, also held in Daejeon. Their presentation, “Spatial Perception of HRTF-Matched Binaural Audio,” shared early results from a study quantifying listeners’ ability to localize sounds in near-field virtual space.

Yale Pediatrics

12/08/2025

New publication!💡

Our latest paper examines how AI and immersive technologies like VR and AR can help reduce disparities in pediatric and AYA oncology. We explore their potential to improve diagnosis, treatment, and support while ensuring innovation reaches all patients.

🔗 Full article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pbc.31909

Yale Pediatrics

11/08/2025

Our team members will be at Serious Play this week! We hope to see you there!

Catch us at Serious Play this year! The conference is located in Rochester, NY and will take place August 13-15th. We have two talks this year that you won't want to miss:

August 13th | 10:45 AM: Dr. Shu Wei will be presenting a talk titled, "Beyond Pulse: Biometric XR for Health & Art." Her talk examines how biometrics are revolutionizing gamified XR experiences in healthcare and the arts, highlighting applications in mental health therapy, early substance use detection, and collaborative artistic expression. Through three case studies, it bridges scientific research with creative innovation using biofeedback in mixed reality.

August 13th | 2 PM: Drs. Asher Marks and Kimberly Hieftje will be presenting their talk, "Future of Immersive Technology in Serious Games." Their talk presents expert consensus on responsible XR design for children, addressing how these technologies can affect their development and offering guidelines for ethical, child-centered implementation. It highlights both the potential benefits like pain management and social connection and the risks of poorly designed or unsupervised XR use.

Yale School of Medicine
Yale Pediatrics

05/08/2025

In this powerful feature, written by Eva Cornman, XRPeds Co-Director, Dr. Kimberly Hieftje, channels personal grief into helping others navigate their own. She explores the intersection of loss, healing, and the unexpected comfort found in nature, even in the hum of cicadas.

Full article: https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/death-grief-and-cicadas-how-a-mother-is-helping-others-navigate-loss/

Yale Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine

30/07/2025

Catch us at Serious Play this year! The conference is located in Rochester, NY and will take place August 13-15th. We have two talks this year that you won't want to miss:

August 13th | 10:45 AM: Dr. Shu Wei will be presenting a talk titled, "Beyond Pulse: Biometric XR for Health & Art." Her talk examines how biometrics are revolutionizing gamified XR experiences in healthcare and the arts, highlighting applications in mental health therapy, early substance use detection, and collaborative artistic expression. Through three case studies, it bridges scientific research with creative innovation using biofeedback in mixed reality.

August 13th | 2 PM: Drs. Asher Marks and Kimberly Hieftje will be presenting their talk, "Future of Immersive Technology in Serious Games." Their talk presents expert consensus on responsible XR design for children, addressing how these technologies can affect their development and offering guidelines for ethical, child-centered implementation. It highlights both the potential benefits like pain management and social connection and the risks of poorly designed or unsupervised XR use.

Yale School of Medicine
Yale Pediatrics

28/07/2025

Dr. Kimberly Hieftje had the privilege to by interviewed by Drs. Jessica Stone and Adam Baldowski for their podcast, MHVR Bytes.

Dr. Adam Baldowski is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor specializing in sexual trauma, dissociative disorders, life transition, and LGBTQIA+ experiences using narrative and geek therapy.

Dr. Jessica Stone is a licensed psychologist whose interest is in digital therapy tools, such as VR and tablets, for clinical mental health use and research. She is the co-creator, CEO, and CPO of the Virtual Sandtray app for iPad and VR.

Their podcast, MHVR Bytes, explores how VR is transforming mental health through expert interviews, real-life stories, and cutting-edge research. Check out Kim on Episode 7 (https://youtu.be/l8qLKYxUT_0) where she talks about transforming grief through narrative experiences and immersive healing in her game, Year of the Cicadas.

Yale Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine

24/07/2025

Had an amazing time hosting the Yale Pathways to Science students this year! They explored immersive tech, learned the game design process from user-centered design to behavior change to accessibility and inclusion, and even pitched their own game ideas to solve real-world problems. Inspiring work from future changemakers! 🎮

Yale Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine

22/07/2025

Dr. Veronica Weser will be moderating a panel titled, "Getting Real Clean: Immersive, Interactive, and Gamified Training for Infection Control" as a part of MedVR's talk series. Joined by Dr. Erica S. Shenoy (MGB), Michelle Jerry (MGH), Vianelly Garcia (MGH), and Andrea Greenfield (MGH), the panel discusses why infection control training needs an infusion of innovative approaches, highlighting Shenoy and team's VR training modules.

The panel will take place, virtually, on July 30th at 12 PM EDT. Register here: https://medvr.io/online-talks/getting-real-clean-training-infection-control

Yale Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine

14/07/2025

Our Project Director, Justin Berry, repped XRPeds at the XR Access Symposium with a demo of Lemmings, a tool for creating remappable gestures in immersive platforms using Unity. His project won Best Demo out of all the presentations at the conference! 👏🎉 Huge congratulations, Justin!

Yale Pediatrics
Yale School of Medicine

09/07/2025

Some XRPeds team members attended the Games for Change Festival a few weeks back. It was an insightful experience, inspiring new ideas as to how we can push our projects forward!

Special shoutout to Dr. Shu Wei who presented her talk, "Emotional Avatar: Virtual Humans for Automated Mental Health Therapy". Her talk explored how affective character design played a pivotal role in shaping user trust, engagement, and physiological responses within the evolving landscape of virtual humans in VR-based healthcare therapy.



Yale School of Medicine
Yale Pediatrics

24/06/2025

This Thursday, Justin Berry will be presenting his talk, "Lemmings: Tools For Accessible Gestures" at XR Access 2025 in New York, NY. His talk introduces Lemmings, an open-source Unity tool that makes gesture-based controls more accessible by replacing complex hand shapes with simpler, customizable motion inputs, enabling users to interact using movements that are more physically comfortable and achievable.

23/06/2025

This Thursday, Dr. Shu Wei will be presenting her talk, "Emotional Avatar: Virtual Humans for Automated Mental Health Therapy" at Games for Change in New York, NY. Her talk dives into the evolving world of virtual humans in VR healthcare, more specifically, how affective character design can reshape user trust, engagement, and physiological responses in VR therapy.