January 4, 2023 | 12:45pm – 1:50pm
Linda Anh Nguyen, MD, FACG
Clinical Professor of Medicine, Stanford University
Clinic Chief, Stanford Digestive Health Center
Title: Unleashing the Power of Virtual Reality in the Management of Chronic Pain: Current Trends and Future Directions
Abstract: Chronic pain is a multidimensional disease that affects approximately 30% of people worldwide and is associated with physical, mental and economic burdens. The most common causes of chronic abdominal pain include a group of disorders historically called “Functional GI Disorders”. These disorders in part are caused by dysregulation of the gut-brain axis. Functional causes of abdominal pain result in significant health care utilization, including Emergency Department (ED) visits, hospitalizations and opiate requirements. Patients frequently report dissatisfaction with current therapies. Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly emerging as a potential nonpharmacologic therapy that can reduce pain. My talk covers the analgesic effects of VR beyond distraction and the current use and limitations of VR in clinical gastroenterology practice. Despite the growth of medical VR and the declining technology costs, implementation of VR in clinical practice remains limited due to multiple factors which will be explored. I will examine current trends and explore future directions in medical VR woven together by personal stories of triumphs and failures.
Bio: Dr. Linda Nguyen is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and Clinic Chief in the Digestive Health Center. Her clinical and research interests include GI motility disorders and disorders of gut brain interaction, with an emphasis on gastroparesis, functional dyspepsia and chronic abdominal pain. She was awarded the highest clinical honor in the Stanford Department of Medicine with the distinction of “Master Clinician” in 2021. She was a member of the NIH/NIDDK Gastroparesis Clinical Research Consortium from 2007-2016. Her current research includes identifying biomarkers to better diagnose motility disorders, understanding the role/impact of physiologic testing on clinical care and exploring novel therapies for treatment of motility disorders. She is especially interested in developing cross disciplinary collaborations to expand the role of bioelectric medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic digestive disorders, including co-creating and patenting a mindfulness VR program (MedMindfulness), consulting on the development of wearable technology to diagnose gastric and autonomic nervous system disorders, and repurposing the use of FDA approved devices for the treatment of digestive disorders. Her team was the first in the US to publish on the use of external cervical vagal nerve stimulation (gammaCore) for the treatment of gastroparesis. She advises pharmaceutical, mobile health and biotechnology companies on a range of topics including current implementation and future research directions such as incorporating mobile cognitive behavior therapy apps into clinical practice.
Dr. Nguyen has served on and chaired numerous Abstract Review Committees and two ad-hoc committees for the National Academy of Science (IOM). She currently serves as a member of the American Gastroenterology Association Research Awards Panel and Councilor for the AGA Neurogastrenterology and Motility section and American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society (ANMS) Council and Chair of the Membership, Mentoring, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
January 5, 2023 | 12:45pm – 1:50pm
Lauren Gardner, PhD
Alton and Sandra Cleveland Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering (Primary)
Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health (Joint)
Director, Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Title: Behind the JHU COVID-19 Dashboard: Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned
Abstract: In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, we developed an online interactive dashboard, first released publicly on January 22, 2020, hosted by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The dashboard visualizes and tracks the number of reported confirmed cases, deaths and more recently, vaccinations for all countries affected by COVID-19. Further, all the data collected and displayed on the dashboard is made freely available in a GitHub repository, along with the live feature layers of the dashboard. The demand for such a service became evident in the first weeks the dashboard was online, and by the end of February we were receiving over one billion requests for the dashboard feature layers every day, totaling over 200 billion requests to date. The dashboard has been relied upon by most major national and international media outlets (NYT, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, etc), and informs COVID-19 planning and response efforts by local and national governmental organizations, emergency response teams, public health agencies, and infectious disease researcher teams around the world. In this talk I will give a brief overview of the evolution of the dashboard, discuss some of the challenges we faced along the way, and suggest some methods by which disease tracking could be done better in the future. I will also discuss how we have used the data to build outbreak prediction models and improve our general understanding of COVID-19 spreading risk.
Bio: Dr. Lauren Gardner is The Alton and Sandra Cleveland Professor, jointly appointed in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and Director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering. She is the creator of the JHU COVID-19 interactive web-based dashboard being used by public health authorities, researchers, and the general public around the globe to track the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The dashboard, which debuted on January 22, became the authoritative source of global COVID-19 epidemiological data for public health policy makers and many major news outlets worldwide. Because of her expertise and leadership, Gardner was one of six Johns Hopkins experts who briefed congressional staff about the outbreak during a Capitol Hill event in early March 2020, and in September was recognized by TIME Magazine, as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Dr. Gardner has previously led related interdisciplinary research projects which utilize network optimization, big data and mathematical modeling to progress the state of the art in global epidemiological risk assessment. Her work focuses holistically on virus diffusion as a function of climate, land use, mobility, and other contributing risk factors. On these topics, Dr. Gardner has received research funding from organizations including NIH, NSF, NASA, and the CDC. Outcomes from her research projects have led to publications in leading interdisciplinary and infectious disease journals, presentations at international academic conferences, as well invited seminars and keynote talks at Universities and various events. Dr. Gardner is also an invited member of multiple international professional committees, reviewer for top-tier journals and grant funding organizations, and invited participant of various Scientific Advisory Committees. She has also supervised more than 30 graduate students and post-docs, and teaches courses on network science and systems engineering. For more information please see the CSSE website: https://systems.jhu.edu/lauren_gardner/