2022 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

  • [1] Gromala, D., Ofoghi, Z. (2021). “Managing Chronic Pain using VR.” Applied Virtual Reality in Healthcare, Editor: Robert Fine, International Virtual Reality Healthcare Association. Book chapter.
  • [2] Shraim MA, Sluka KA, Sterling M, … Ushida T, Williamson OD, et al. (2022). “Features and methods to discriminate between mechanism-based categories of pain experienced in the musculoskeletal system: a Delphi expert consensus study.” In Pain, the journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). 163:9, pp.1812-1828. DOI:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002577
  • “Three major issues challenge the development of an accepted method to discriminate between pain mechanism categories. First, because no direct in vivo measures are available to confirm the putative neurobiological mechanisms responsible for pain in many individuals, there is no gold standard method to validate the discrimination between mechanisms. Second, many individuals likely present with pain that includes a combination of pain mechanisms, although one might be predominant. Third, interpretation of the literature is hampered by divergence of opinion regarding features that might be unique to a specific pain mechanism category or shared between multiple categories. When evidence is contradictory, divergent, or unavailable, consensus of experts is necessary.”

2021 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

  • [1] Kiaei Ziabari, S., Ofoghi, Z., A. Rodrigues E., Gromala, D. & Moreno, S. (2021). “Investigating the role of having an avatar in virtual reality on pain alleviation and embodiment in patients with pain using electroencephalogram: a neuroimaging protocol,” in Frontiers in Virtual Reality, Special Issue: Virtual Reality in Medicine. (12 pages).
  • [2] Ofoghi Z, Kiaei P, Gromala D. Designing and Developing a Comprehensive Pain Neuroscience Education Package for Patients with Chronic Pain. Presented in Annual Scientific Meeting of Canadian Pain Society 2021. DOI:10.1080/24740527.2021.1906883.
  • [3] Warke B., Li R., Gromala D., Li L., Shaw C., Gupta A., Hoens A., Koehn C., Currie L., Mamdani H., Cooper D., and Loo S. (2021) “The Burden of Pain Symptoms: Designing a patient-centered platform.” 15th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices 2021, Brooklyn, NY, USA. March 3-5, 2021.

2020 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

  • [1] Tong, X., Wang, X, Cai, Y, Gromala, D, Fan, B, & Wei, K (2020). “I Dreamed of My Hands and Arms Moving Again”: A Case Series Investigating the Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Phantom Limb Pain Alleviation” in Frontiers in Neurology, 11, 876. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.00876/full
    PMID: 32982914.
  • [2] Li LC., Feehan LM., Xie H., Lu N., Shaw CD., Gromala D., Zhu S., Aviña-Zubieta JA., Hoens AM., Koehn C., Tam J., Therrien S., Townsend AF., Noonan G., Backman CL. (2020). “Effects of a 12-Week Multifaceted Wearable-Based Program for People With Knee Osteoarthritis: Randomized Controlled Trial.” JMIR mHealth uHealth. 2020 Jul 3;8(7):e19116.
    DOI: 10.2196/19116. PMID: 32618578; PMCID: PMC7367519.
  • [3] Ankit Gupta, Tim Heng, Chris Shaw, Diane Gromala, Jenny Leese and Linda Li. 2020. “Oh, I didn’t do a good job: How objective data affects physiotherapist-patient conversations for arthritis patients.” Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 156–165.
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3421937.3421991
  • [4] Tong X., Gromala D, Kiaei Ziabari SP, Shaw CD (2020). “Designing a Virtual Reality Game for Promoting Empathy Toward Patients with Chronic Pain: Feasibility and Usability Study.” JMIR Serious Games. 2020 Aug 7;8(3):e17354.
    DOI: 10.2196/17354. PMID: 32763883; PMCID: PMC7442937.
  • [5] Li LC., Feehan LM., Xie H., Lu N., Shaw C., Gromala D., Aviña-Zubieta JA., Koehn C., Hoens AM., English K., Tam J., Therrien S., Townsend AF., Noonan G., Backman CL. (2020). “Efficacy of a Physical Activity Counseling Program With Use of a Wearable Tracker in People With Inflammatory Arthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”Arthritis Care & Research (Hoboken). 2020 Dec;72(12):1755-1765.
    DOI: 10.1002/acr.24199. PMID: 32248626  Clinical Trial.
  • [6] Ofoghi Z, Kiaei P, Gromala D. (2020). Cooling down the brain in pain: the neuroscience of virtual reality analgesia. In:  IASP virtual series on pain & expo! innovation in research and education (Online only). 2020. https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/IASP-Virtual-Series-on-Pain/aaStatic.asp?SFP=S0RVVFZRQ0dANDg5MA#Neuropathic Pain.
  • [7] Gromala D., Ofoghi Z. (2020). How does the virtual meditative walk affect activity and connectivity of the pain-related brain regions in chronic pain patients? design of a clinical, longitudinal MRI study. In: IASP virtual series on pain & expo: innovation in research and education. 2020.
    https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/IASP-Virtual-Series-on-Pain/aaStatic.asp?SFP=S0RVVFZRQ0dANDg5MA#Neuropathic Pain.
  • [8] Tong, X. and Gromala, D. (2020) “Designing and Evaluating VR games for Phantom Limb Pain Management,” Poster 2020 USC Institute for Integrative Health & Wellness Virtual Conference. 14 November 2020.
  • [9] Warke, B., Li, R., Gromala, D., Li, L.N., Shaw, C.D., Gupta, A., Hoens, A., Koehn, C., Currie, L., Mamdani, H., Cooper, D. & Loo, S. (2020). “The Burden of Pain Symptoms: A prototype for citizens of British Columbia,” peer-reviewed poster in PAINWeek Abstract Book 2019.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00325481.2019.1655695

2019 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Artificial Intelligence, Health Games & Visualization Peer-reviewed Publications: 2019
  • [1] Weina Jin, Jianyu Fan, Diane Gromala, Philippe Pasquier (2018). “Automatic Prediction of Cybersickness for Virtual Reality Games,” presented at IEEE GEM conference, Galway, Ireland. 17 August 2018. Peer‐reviewed conference paper published in the Proceedings of the IEEE Games, Entertainment, and Media Conference, 2018. pp.1–9.
  • [2] Xin Tong, Weina Jin, Servet Ulas and Diane Gromala (2018). “The Design and Evaluation of a Body‐Sensing Video Game to Foster Empathy towards Chronic Pain Patients,” Presented at Pervasive Health, Barcelona, Spain, 25 May 2018. Published in Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, pp.244–250. New York, NY: ACM Press. ISBN: 978‐1‐4503‐6363‐1 DOI: 10.1145/3154862.3154869
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2019
  • [1] Xin Tong, Henan Diao, Kunlin Wei, Li Hu, Diane Gromala (2019). “Exploration of Body Ownership, Agency and Heat Pain Perception in Virtual Reality” CPS (Canadian Pain Society’s) 40th Annual Scientific Conference, Toronto, 2019.
  • [2] Xin Tong, Diane Gromala, Frederico Machuca, Pam Squire, Daehan Kim, Yan Li, Kunlin Wei. “A Serious Immersive Reality Game for Promoting Chronic Arthritis Pain Patients’ General Physical Activity and Range of Motion.” CPS’s (Canadian Pain Society’s) 40th Annual Scientific Conference, Toronto, 2019.
  • [3] Xin Tong, Xinxing Wang, BiFa Fan, Yan Li, Kunlin Wei. Case study: a Virtual Reality Approach for Managing Phantom Lower Limb Pain. HCII (Human‐Computer Interaction International), 2019. [In publication]
  • [4] Xin Tong, Diane Gromala, Frederico Machuca (2019). LumaPath: An Immersive Virtual Reality Game for Encouraging Physical Activity for Aging Arthritis Patients. Pervasive Health 2019. [In submission]

2018 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Wearable Computing & Health Games Peer-reviewed Publications: 2018
  • [1] Weina Jin, Diane Gromala, Junbo Bao, Yabin Guo, Tianpei Shen & Oliver Schulte (2018). “Automatic Pain Level Classification with Physiological Signals using Machine Learning.” CPS’s (Canadian Pain Society’s) 39th Annual Scientific Conference, Montreal, 24–25 May, 2018. (This approach may help to better infer pain from patients who cannot report or express their pain verbally, such as infants or patients with dementia.)
  • [2] Jenny Leese, Graham Macdonald, Bao Chau Tran, Rosalind Wong, Catherine Backman, Anne Townsend, Aileen Davis, Allyson Jones, Diane Gromala, Antonio Avina‐Zubieta, Alison Hoens, & Linda Li, (2018). “Using Physical Activity Trackers in Arthritis Self‐Management: A Qualitative Study of Patient and Rehabilitation Professional Perspectives.” In Arthritis Care & Research, 31 pages. ACR‐18‐0318. DOI: 10.1002/acr.23780
  • [3] Tong, X., Gupta, A., Gromala, D., Shaw C., and Neustaedter, C., Choo, A. (2017). “Utilizing Gamification Approaches in Pervasive Health: How Can We Motivate Physical Activity Effectively?” in EAI Endorsed Transactions on Pervasive Health and Technology, Spain, 3:11, e3. (14 pages) http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/eai.18‐7‐2017.152897
  • [4] Servet Ulas, Weina Jin, Xin Tong, Diane Gromala, and Chris Shaw. 2017. “Frustrating Interaction Design of AS IF, an Embodied Interaction Game for Perspective Taking Towards Physical Limitations.” In SpringerLink, pp.192–198. http://doi.org/10.1007/978‐3‐319‐58753‐0_30
  • [5] Tim Bodyka Heng, Dr. Chris Shaw, Xin Tong, Dr. Diane Gromala (2018). “FitViz‐Ad: A Non‐Intrusive Reminder to Support and Encourage Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients with Physical Activity,” at IASP’s (International Association for the Study of Pain’s) Biennial Conference. Boston, 12–13 September 2018.
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2018
  • [1] Garrett, JB, Taverner, T., Gromala, D., Tao, G., Cordingley, E., Sun, C., (2018). “Virtual Reality Clinical Research: Promises and Challenges” in JMIR Serious Games, 6:4 (2018), pp.21–30. DOI:10.2196/10839.
  • [2] Diane Gromala, Howard Rose, Frances Ayalasomayajula (2018). “Virtual Reality (VR) Health Care: Best Practices for Clinical Implementation,” in AI­Med (Artificial Intelligence in Medicine), vol 3: VR Health Care, pp.62–65. http://ai-med.io/virtual-reality-health-best-practices-clinical-implementation/
  • [3] Diane Gromala, Xin Tong, Chris Shaw, Weina Jin. (2018). “Immersive Virtual Reality as a Non‐Pharmacological Analgesic for Pain Management: Pain Distraction and Pain Self‐Modulation,” in Virtual and Augmented Reality: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. pp.1176‐1199. DOI: 10.4018/978‐1‐5225‐5469‐1.ch056
  • [4] Xin Tong, Kathryn Cruz, Weina Jin, Diane Gromala, Crystal Sun, Bernie Garrett and Tarnia Taverner (2018). “A Case Study: Chronic Pain Patients’ Preferences for Virtual Reality Games for Pain Distraction.” Presented at 10th International Conference, VAMR 2018, part of Human‐Computer Interaction International (HCII), Las Vegas, Nevada. 17 July 2018. Published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS), 10910, pp.3–11. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.
  • [5] Frederico Machuca, Xin Tong, Noel Feng, Diane Gromala, Gabriela Aceves‐Sepulveda, Linda Li (2018). “Promoting Physical Activity and Movement for Arthritis Patients through A Virtual Reality Serious Game,” IASP’s (International Association for the Study of Pain’s) Biennial Conference. Boston, 15–16 September 2018.

2017 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Health Games & Visualization Peer-reviewed Publications: 2017
  • [1] Tong, X., Gupta, A., Gromala, D., Shaw, C. (2017). “Understanding Pokémon Go Players: An Online Survey Investigating WHY, When, and How They Play the Mobile Augmented-Reality Game,” HCII (Human-Computer Interaction International), July 2017.
  • [2] Tong, X., Gupta, A., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., (2017). “Players’ Experience of an Augmented Reality Game, Pokémon Go: Inspirations and Implications for Designing Pervasive Health Gamified Applications.” Presented at HCII 2017, July, Toronto, Canada. Published in: Streitz N., Markopoulos P. (eds) Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions. DAPI 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol.10291. pp.675–683. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978‐3‐319‐58697‐7_50
  • [3] Tong, X., Gupta, A., Lo, H., Choo, A., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., (2017). “Chasing Lovely Monsters in the Augmented Reality Era, Exploring Players’ Motivation and Play Patterns of Pokémon Go: Go, Gone or Go Away?” ACM Conference on Computer‐Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), Portland, US, March 2017. Published in CHI PLAY Proceedings, pp.327–330.
  • [4] Jin, W., Neustaedter, C., Gromala, D., Tong, X., (2017). “A Collaborative Visualization Tool to Support Doctors’ Shared Decision‐Making on Antibiotic Prescription,” presented at ACM CSCW (Conference on Computer‐Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing). Portland, OR, U.S.A., Mar. 2017. Published in ACM CSCW Proceedings, pp.211–214.
  • [5] Fateme Rajabiyazdi, Charles Perin, Jo Vermeulen, Haley MacLeod, Diane Gromala, and Sheelagh Carpendale (2017). “Differences that matter: in‐clinic communication challenges.” Paper presented at Pervasive Health ‘17, Barcelona, Spain, 26 May 2017. Published in Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. New York, NY: ACM Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3154862.3154885
  • [6] Linda C. Li, Lynne M. Feehan, Chris Shaw, Hui Xie, Eric C. Sayre, Antonio Aviña‐Zubeita, Navi Grewal, Anne F. Townsend, Diane Gromala, Greg Noonan and Catherine L. Backman. (2017). “A technology‐enabled Counselling program versus a delayed treatment control to support physical activity participation in people with inflammatory arthritis: study protocol for the OPAM‐IA randomized controlled trial,” in BMC Rheumatology 20171:6. (8 pages) https://doi.org/10.1186/s41927‐017‐0005‐4 (Springer Open Access journal).
  • [7] Amelia W. Cole, Denise T. Quesnel, Serkan Pekçetin, Diane Gromala, Heather O’Brien, Alissa N. Antle, and Bernhard E. Riecke (2017). “Integrating Affective Responses and Gamification into Early Reading Acquisition Software Applications.” Presented at CHI PLAY’17, October 2017, Amsterdam. Published in CHI PLAY ’17 Extended Abstracts Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer­Human Interaction in Play, pp.73–85. New York, NY: ACM Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3130859.3131433
  • [8] Mark Nazemi, Maryam Mobini, Diane Gromala, Hin Hin Ko, and Julie Carlson (2017). “Sonic therapy for anxiety management in clinical settings.” Presented at Pervasive Health ‘17, Barcelona, Spain, 24 May 2017. Published in Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, pp.455‐459. New York, NY: ACM Press. ISBN: 978‐1‐4503‐6363‐1 DOI: 10.1145/3154862.3154892
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2017
  • [1] Ng, J., Lo, H., Tong, X., Jin, W., Gromala, D., Strahlendorf, C., Ulas, S. (2017). “A Pilot Focus Group Study of Farmooo, A Virtual Reality Pain Distraction Game Designed for 14-to 18 -year-old Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy” presented at the Canadian Pain Society’s Annual Scientific Conference, Halifax, Canada. 24–25 May 2017. One of Five Best Posters selected by judges for a short talk & panel.
  • [2] Amin, A., Tong, X., Gromala, D. (2017). “The Efficacy of Using Cardboard Mobile Virtual Reality for Chronic Pain Patients’ Pain Distraction in Clinical Settings” CPS (Canadian Pain Society’s) Annual Conference 2017.
  • [3] Tong, X., Jin, W., Ulas, S., Gromala, D. (2017). “Evaluating AS IF, an Interactive Body-sensing Game to Foster Empathy Towards Chronic Pain Patients,” Canadian Pain Society Annual Conference 2017.
  • [4] Amin, A., Tong, X., Gromala, D., Shaw, C. (2017). “Cardboard Mobile Virtual Reality as an Approach for Pain Distraction in Clinical Setting: Comparison with Oculus Rift, Exploration and Evaluation,” presented at ACM CHI’17 WIPs (Works in Progress), Colorado, 9 May 2017. Published in Proceedings of CHI’17, vol. 9740, pp.269–276.
  • [5] Tong, X., Gromala, D. (2017). “Dynamic Difficulty Adaptation (DDA) in a Virtual Reality (VR) Game for Hand Exercise Based on Player’s’ Motivation and Performance” presented at ACM CHI ’17 (Computer-Human Interaction), WIP.
  • [6] Janice Ng, Henry Lo, Xin Tong, Diane Gromala, Weina Jin (2018). “Farmooo, a virtual reality farm simulation game designed for cancer pediatric patients to distract their pain during chemotherapy treatment,” presented at the Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality Session at IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2018 (EI 2018). 28 January 2018. Published in Electronic Imaging, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2018, pp.432.1–432.4. Burlingame, CA: Society for Imaging Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470‐1173.2018.03.ERVR‐432
  • [7] Diane Gromala (2016) (published online 19 January 2017). “Pain matters: outliers in new tribes and territories,” in Digital Creativity, 27:4, pp.288‐303, (Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Routledge). DOI:10.1080/14626268.2016.1250013.
  • [8] Tong, X., Pekcetin, S., Gromala, D., Machuca, F., (2017). “Exploring Body Gestures as Natural User Interface for Flying in a Virtual Reality Game with Kinect,” Paper presented at The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2017 conference, San Francisco, January 2017. Published in Electronic Imaging, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2017, 1 January 2017. Burlingame, CA: Society for Imaging Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470‐1173.2017.3.ERVR‐101 http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/ist/ei/2017/00002017/00000003/art00011

2016 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Health Games & Health Apps Peer-reviewed Publications: 2016
  • [1] X. Tong, D. Gromala, C. D. Shaw, and A. Choo (2016). “A Field Study: Evaluating Gamification Approaches for Promoting Physical Activity with Motivational Models of Behavior Changes,” in Human-Computer Interaction. Novel User Experiences, vol. 9733, M. Kurosu, Ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016, pp. 417–424.
  • [2] Tong, X., Gupta, A., Gromala, D., Shaw C., and Neustaedter, C. (2016). “Utilizing Gamification Approaches in Pervasive Health: How Can We Motivate Physical Activity Effectively?” in EAI Endorsed Transactions on Pervasive Health and Technology. Nov. 2016.
  • [3] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., Choo, A., (2016). “An Empirical Study: Evaluating the Gamification Approaches for Promoting Motivation in Behavior Changes” in the 18th International Conference on Human-computer Interaction (HCII 2016), July 18, Toronto Canada.
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2016
  • [1] Gromala, D., Tong, X., Shaw, C., Jin, W. (2016). “Immersive Virtual Reality as a Non-pharmacological Analgesic for Pain Management: Pain Distraction and Pain Self-modulation” in Handbook of Research on Human-Computer Interfaces, Developments, and Applications, Chapter 19, IGI publishing, pp. 488-511. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0435-1.ch019
  • [2] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Gupta, D. & Shaw, C. (2016). “Usability Comparisons of Head-Mounted vs. Stereoscopic Desktop Displays in a Virtual Reality Environment with Pain Patients,” in Proceedings of Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 22, vol. 220, 424 – 431, IOS Press. DOI:10.3233/978-1-61499-625-5-424
  • [3] Jin, W., Gromala, D., Choo, A., Shaw, C. & and Squire, P. (2016). “A Virtual Reality Game for Chronic Pain Management: a Randomized, Controlled Clinical Study,” in Proceedings of Studies in Health Technology and Informatics: Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 22, vol. 220, 154–160, IOS Press. DOI:10.3233/978-1-61499-625-5-154
  • [4] Garrett B, Taverner T, Masinde W, Gromala D, Shaw C, Negraeff M. (2014). “A rapid evidence assessment of immersive virtual reality as an adjunct therapy in acute pain management in clinical practice” in Clinical Journal of Pain. 2014 Dec; 30(12):1089-98. DOI: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000064. PubMed PMID: 24535053.
  • [5] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Amin A., Choo A., (2016). “The Design of an Immersive Mobile Virtual Reality Serious Game in Cardboard Head-mounted Display for Pain Management” in the 5th EAI International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (MindCare), Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 604, Springer. pp. 284–293.
  • [6] Amin, A., Gromala, D., Shaw, C. (2016). “Immersion in Cardboard VR in Comparison to a Traditional Head-Mounted Display” In the 18th International Conference on Human-computer Interaction, (HCII 2016), July 18, Toronto, Canada.
  • [7] Tong, X., Kiston, A., Salimi, M., Gromala, D., and Reicke, B., (2016). “Exploring Embodied Experience of Flying in a Virtual Reality Game with Kinect” in IEEE VR Mixed-Reality Art Workshop, South Carolina, Mar 2016. Publication + Presentation url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEWwYfomkYY.
  • [8] Gromala, D., Tong, X., Shaw, C., Amin, A., Ulas, S., Ramsay, G. (2016). “Mobius Floe: an Immersive Virtual Reality Game for Pain Distraction” in SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 9392, San Francisco. http://www.imaging.org/ist/conferences/ei2016/C-ERVR.cfm in publication. [Accessed May 10 2016].
  • [9] Jin, W., Ulas, S. Tong, X., Gromala, D., and Shaw C. (2016). “AS IF You Are Suffering in Silence An Interactive Installation as Empathy Tool for Chronic Pain,” ISEA2016, May, Hong Kong.
  • [10] Jin, W., Ulas, S. Tong, X., (2016). “AS IF: A Game as an Empathy Tool for Experiencing the Activity Limitations of Chronic Pain Patients.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the ACM CHI Conference May 7-12, San Jose, CA. Peer-reviewed paper published in ACM CHI’16 Extended Abstracts, pp.172-175, NYC: ACM (Association for Computing Machinery).
  • [11] Tong, X., Jin, W., Gromala, D., and Pam, S. (2016). “Two Paradigms and Clinical Trials of Designing Virtual Reality as an Adjunctive Non-Pharmacological Intervention for Chronic Pain Patients: Pain Self-Management and Pain Distraction,” Canadian Pain Society (CPS) Annual Scientific Conference, 2016, May 23-25, Vancouver, Canada.
  • [12] Jin, W., Ulas, S. Tong, X., Gromala, D., and Shaw C. (2016). “Chronic Pain: Gaining Understanding And Empathy Through An Interactive System,” Canadian Pain Society (CPS) Annual Scientific Conference, 2016, May 23-25, Vancouver, Canada.
  • [13] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Jin, W., Squire, P., (2016). “Two Paradigms of Designing Virtual Reality for Chronic Pain Patients: Pain Self-Modulation vs. Pain Distraction.” International Association for the Study of Pain’s (IASP’s) 16th World Congress on Pain, Yokohama, Japan. September, 2016.
  • [14] Jin, W., Ulas, S., Tong, X., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., (2016). “Seeing is Believing: an Embodied Empathy Game that Visualizes the Invisible Suffering of Chronic Pain.” International Association for the Study of Pain’s (IASP’s) 16th World Congress on Pain, Yokohama, Japan. September, 2016.
  • [15] Jin, W., Choo, A., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., Amin, A., (2016). “A Virtual Reality Game for Chronic Pain Management: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Study.” PainWEEK, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September, 2016.
  • [16] Jin, W., Machuca, F., Gromala, D., (2016). “Serious Game for Serious Disease: Diminishing Stigma of Depression via Game Experience.” PainWEEK, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September, 2016.
  • [17] Jin, W., Tong, X., Ulaş, S., Machuca, F., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., (2016). “Chronic pain: gaining understanding and empathy through an interactive system.” PainWEEK, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September, 2016.
  • [18] Tong, X.,  Gromala, D., Amin, A., Squire, P., (2016). “Virtual Reality For Chronic Pain Management: Pain Self-Modulation through Biofeedback and Cognitive Pain Distraction.” PainWEEK, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September, 2016.
  • [19] Amin, A., Gromala, D., (2016). “Comparison of Immersion in Cardboard VR and Oculus Rift for Playing a Pain Management Game.” PainWEEK, Las Vegas, NV, USA. September, 2016.

2015 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Health Games & Wearable Computing: Peer-reviewed Publications: 2015
  • [1] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Choo, A., Salimi, M., Lee, J., (2015). “ ‘Weather’ Wearable System: a Design Exploration to Facilitate the Collaboration and Communication with Chronic Pain Patients,” peer-reviewed paper presented at the Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction: Access to Learning, Health and Well-Being section of HCI International. Peer-reviewed paper published in Proceedings of HCI International, vol. 9177, 383–393.
  • [2] Salimi, M., Gromala, D., Tong, X., (2015). “Grene Epiphytes, an Immersive BioArtificial-Life Artwork” Peer-reviewed talk presented at ISEA 2015. Published in the Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2015. ISSN: 2451-8611 ISBN: 978-1-910172-00-1.
  • [3] Tong X., Gromala, D., Bartram L., Rajabiyazdi F., Carpendale S. (2015). “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Three Physical Activity Visualizations – How People Perform vs. Perceive” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the IEEE VIS Workshop: vis4me, Chicago, 25 October 2015. Peer-reviewed paper: http://www.vis4me.com/personalvis15/papers/tong.pdf
  • [4] Jin W., Gromala D., & Tong X., (2015). “A Serious Game for Serious Disease: Diminishing Stigma of Depression via Game Experience,” Peer-reviewed poster presented at the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, Games, Entertainment, Media Conference, Toronto, October, 2015.
  • [5] Xin Tong, Gromala, D., Shaw C., Jin W., (2015). “Encouraging Physical Activity with a Game-based Mobile Application: FitPet” Peer-reviewed paper delivered at IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, Games, Entertainment, Media Conference, Toronto, October, 2015.
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2015
  • [1] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Choo, A., Amin, A., Shaw, C., (2015).  
“The Virtual Meditative Walk: an Immersive Virtual Environment for Pain Self-modulation through Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Meditation,” peer-reviewed paper presented at the Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality section of HCI International. Peer-reviewed paper published in Proceedings of HCI International (HCII), Vol. 9179, 388-397.
  • [2] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Choo, A. (2015). “Experience and Practice: Body Image and Body Schema for Embodied Cognition in Human Computer Interaction Design” Peer-reviewed paper presented at Design Principles and Practices, March, Chicago. Peer-reviewed paper published: http://kc.cgpub.net/assets/downloads/design/G15_Program_Final_Web_Version-1.pdf
  • [3] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Williamson, O., Shaw C., and Iscen O. E., (2015). “A Theoretical Review and Interaction Design Space of Body Image and Body Schema (BIBS) for Embodied Cognition in Virtual Reality,” Peer-reviewed paper presented at Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality: SPIE VR Conference, February 2015. San Francisco. Peer-reviewed paper published in the Proceedings of SPIE: the International Society for Optical Engineering 9392, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2015, 93920D, San Francisco. DOI:10.1117/12.2083441. (11 pages)
  • [4] Gromala, D., Tong, X., Choo, A., Shaw, C. (2015). “The Virtual Meditative Walk: Virtual Reality Therapy for Chronic Pain Management.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) CHI 2015, April 18-24, Seoul, Korea. CHI ’15. Peer-reviewed paper published in the ACM’s (Association for Computing Machinery) CHI ’15 Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp.521–524. New York, NY: ACM Press. DOI: 10.1145/2702123.2702344.
  • [5] Xin Tong, Gromala, D., (2015). “Experience and Practice: Body Image and Body Schema for Embodied Cognition in Human Computer Interaction Design” Peer-reviewed paper delivered at Design Principles & Practices Conference, March, 2015, Chicago.

2014 Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications

Visualization & Wearable Computing: Peer-reviewed Publications: 2014
  • [1] Feng, C., Bartram, L., Gromala, D. (2014). “Beyond Data: Abstract Motionscapes as Affective Visualization” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program, VISAP’14: Art+Interpretation, Paris, France, November 12, 2014. Peer-reviewed paper published in Leonardo, “the leading journal for readers interested in the application of contemporary science and technology to the art.” pp. 75-84.
  • [2] Tong, X., Gromala, D., Shaw, C., Clarke P. (2014). “Transformation between Electronic Arts and Chronic Pain: Long-term Body Activity Data Visualization and Pain Animation Expression,” presented at the Conference of Electronic Visualization Arts (EVA), July 8, 2014. London. Peer-reviewed paper published in the Proceedings of the Conference on Electronic Visualization Arts. London: BCS Chartered Institute for IT, in the series: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2014), pp.75-81.
  • [3] Karamnejad, M., Gromala, D., Choo, A., Shaw, C. and Tong, X. (2014). “Orientation of Attention in Visual Feedbacks During Neurofeedback Relaxation.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the International Conference on Physiological Computing Systems, January 2014, Lisbon. Peer-reviewed paper published in SciTePress, pp. 196–203.
  • [4] Tong, X., Gromala, D., & Shaw, C. (2014). “Body Activity Data Visualization and Pain Animation Expression for Chronic Pain Patients,” Peer-reviewed poster presented at the Expressive Computational Aesthetics Conference 2014, co-located with ACM SIGGRAPH, August 2014, Vancouver, Canada.
  • [5] Gromala, D., Tong, X., & Choo, A. (2014). “A Wearable Pain ‘Weather’ System,” NCE-GRAND Annual Conference, Ottawa Canada, May 14-15, 2014.
  • [6] Li LC, Adam PM, Townsend AF, Lacaille D, Yousefi C, Stacey D, Gromala D, Shaw CD, Tugwell P, Backman CL. (2013). “Usability testing of ANSWER: a web-based methotrexate decision aid for patients with rheumatoid arthritis,” in BMC Medical Information Decision Making. 2013 Dec 1;13:131. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6947-13-131. PubMed PMID: 24289731. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4220621.
VR Health Research Peer-reviewed Publications: 2014
  • [1] Nazemi, M., Gromala, D., Mobini, M., Mamisao, J., (2014). “Improving the Mental State of Patients in Clinical Settings,” in Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (Chapter 7). Springer, pp. 58–64.
  • [2] Garrett B., Taverner T., Masinde W., Gromala D., Shaw C., Negraeff M. (2014). “A Rapid Evidence Assessment of Immersive Virtual Reality as an Adjunct Therapy in Acute Pain Management in Clinical Practice,” Clinical Journal of Pain (Feb 2014). pp.1089-98.
  • [3] Nazemi, M., Gromala, D., Karamnejad, M. (2014). “Virtual Reality as Analgesia: An alternative approach for managing chronic pain,” in Proceedings of IGI journal Creative Interfaces and Computer Graphics, (IJCICG), vol. 5, issue 2, pp.75–86.
  • [4] Choo, A., Tong, X., Gromala, D. and Hollander, A. (2014). “A Virtual Reality and Mobius Floe: Cognitive Distraction as Non-Pharmacological Analgesic for Pain Management.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at Games for Health Europe, October 27–28, 2014. Utrecht, the Netherlands. Peer-reviewed paper published in the Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Gaming and Playful Interaction in Health Care, NYC: Springer, pp. 8–12.
  • [5] Nazemi, M., Gromala, D., Mobini, M., Tong, X. (2014). “A user centered design approach for reducing anxiety in adolescents with scoliosis undergoing and recovering from spinal fusion surgery.” NCE-GRAND Annual Conference, May 14–15, 2014, Ottawa, Canada.
  • [6] Namezi, M., and Gromala, D. (2014). “VR Therapy: Management of chronic pain using virtual mindfulness training,” Presented at CHI ’15. Peer-reviewed paper published in the CHI EA ’15 Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 625–637.