“I was a cartoonist for the Daily Bruin about 20 years ago. I had my 15 minutes of fame when a Daily Bruin staff member referenced Press Pound, my comic strip, for my humorous depiction of the UCLA health insurance plan in one of my installments: Letters – Daily Bruin.”

-Warren Scott Comulada

XR Health and Wellness Subcommittee

Led by: Warren Scott Comulada

Current UCLA Position: Professor-in-residence and Director, Semel Institute Center for Community Health

Affiliated UCLA Department(s): Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Health Policy and Management

My research focuses on the development of digital health interventions to improve the mental and physical health of children and adults. In recent years, this has intersected with my passion for XR in the development of virtual training applications for clinicians and virtual health applications for patients.

XR Interests
  1. XR innovations to improve clinical training
  2. XR innovations for patients
  3. Intersection of large language models and XR, i.e., embodied conversational agents

Favorite XR Project or Milestone:

  • Title: Surgery Prep
  • Description: A VR perioperative walkthrough designed to help pediatric patients psychologically prepare for surgery available through the Meta store for the Quest
Goals
  1. Map and create a network of XR healthcare researchers at UCLA and other institutions and companies to foster collaboration.
  2. Develop a mentorship program for UCLA undergraduate and graduate students interested in the XR healthcare space.
  3. Create a repository of XR healthcare resources from books and articles to recommended practices and software applications.
Meetings Topics
  1.  Design and ethical considerations for XR healthcare applications
  2.  XR software and tools to help researchers get started in the XR space
  3.  How AI is being integrated into XR healthcare applications
Links

Semel Institute Center for Community Health: CCH UCLA – CCH UCLA

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/warren-scott-comulada-95259939

Instagram: Instagram

TikTok: W. Scott Comulada (@westsideprof) | TikTok

Twitter handle: @ScottComulada