This post and podcast episode are for informational purposes only, and are not intended as medical advice.  Please contact a healthcare professional with any health-related questions.

Our Over Coffee® Valentine special will be posted later this week! Meanwhile, as Cedars-Sinai prepares for their annual “Virtual Medicine” conference in March 2022, here is our earlier interview with conference founder Dr. Brennan Spiegel, on his book, “VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine”.

In March, 2018, we watched history being made in Los Angeles.

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Medical professionals from thirteen countries had come to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for the world’s first “Virtual Medicine” conference.

An incredible two days followed.

Led by Cedars-Sinai Director of Health Services Research Dr. Brennan Spiegel, a series of medical professionals took the stage for presentations on pain management, therapy and preventive medicine–using virtual reality.

A standing ovation followed the final session.

Unbelievably, four years have passed since that groundbreaking conference.

The fifth, now-annual Virtual Medicine conference, “vMed22”, is coming up March 24-25 of this year, and will be entirely virtual. (Here’s the link for information, and we’re looking forward to attending, virtually!)

Meanwhile, in 2020, we had the honor of getting to talk with Dr. Spiegel about his findings, and his experiences, as we discussed his book, VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine”.

Here is a rebroadcast of our interview–and we’re looking forward to March 24th!

On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• What first inspired Dr. Spiegel to begin using virtual reality in his medical practice;

• One of the early experiences which he had with VR, and describes in his book;

• How VR is currently being used in therapy to treat anxiety;

• A look at one doctor’s use of virtual reality to help veterans with PTSD;

• How VR works to combat eating disorders, such as obesity and anorexia;

• A neuroscience explanation of why it works–to “fool” the brain!;

• A look at how VR can work in the brain alleviate pain;

• The story of one patient who used VR to control pain and wean himself off opiods;

• Some of the obstacles to widespread adoption of medical VR–and how the field is growing;

• An exciting new program, currently in the planning stages at Cedars-Sinai;

• One program which Dr. Spiegel developed with a congregation, in VRx, to help parishioners lower their blood pressure through VR;

• AND, how to find out more about upcoming free webinars and resources through Cedars-Sinai.