Computer Vision News - January 2022

66 MedTech Event year. Having spotted the VR and healthcare sector was growing fast, he realized it could benefit from having its own community, so in 2018 he founded the International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association (IVRHA) to fill that gap. “ From the start, we designed IVRHA to be representative of the healthcare ecosystem, ” he recalls. “ It’s not just about VR start-ups. We have teaching hospitals, universities, primary care hospitals, and research organisations as members. A quarter of our members are outside the United States. I just got an email from one member to say they have been acquired by another member – they wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for IVRHA. ” Now in its sixth year, the Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium is the largest event around on the topic , hosting a mix of start-ups, established technology companies, academia, and clinicians all working together to create successful products for the marketplace. The last in-person event was held in March 2020 and was very well received, so after a challenging couple of years, Robert is looking Robert Fine is the founder and executive director of the International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association. Currently, he is busy organizing the 6th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium, which takes place in Nashville in March. He tells us more about what we can expect from the event. Robert has been working in VR since 2016 and after experimenting and seeing where the interest was in different verticals, he launched the first Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Global Symposium the following VIRTUAL REALITY AND HEALTHCARE GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM