Albert "Skip" Rizzo, PhD

Albert “Skip” Rizzo, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a Research Professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Over the last 25 years, Skip has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment and rehabilitation across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. Some of his recent work has involved the creation of artificially intelligent virtual human (VH) patients that novice clinicians can use to practice skills required for challenging diagnostic interviews and for creating online virtual human healthcare guides, and clinical interviewers with automated sensing of facial, gestural, and vocal behaviors useful for inferring the state of the user interacting with these virtual human entities. In spite of the diversity of these clinical R&D areas, the common thread that drives all of his work with digital technologies involves the study of how interactive and immersive Virtual Reality simulations can be usefully applied to address human healthcare needs beyond what is possible with traditional 20th Century tools and methods. To view some videos of this work, please visit this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlbertSkipRizzo.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Albert "Skip" Rizzo is the founder of Virtual Psychedelics and has an employment relationship with the University of Southern California. He receives royalties as a published author. Albert "Skip" Rizzo receives grants from the Veterans Health Administration and the National Institutes for Health. He is a consultant for Penumbra and Cognitive Leap. serves as a scientific advisor for Attune Media, Pear Therapeutics, MyndVR, TrippVR, Luminopia, and Magic Horizons. Albert "Skip" Rizzo receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. All relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations have been mitigated.
Non-financial: Albert "Skip" Rizzo is a member of the American Psychological Association, the International Neuropsychological Society, and the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapy.