Partners

Virtual Bodyworks S.L (VBW) specialises in immersive virtual reality focused on medical and psychological rehabilitation. The primary expertise of VBW is immersive virtual reality, interaction, and evaluation of immersive systems.

VBW carries out research and applications in the area of virtual embodiment. This is the substitution in immersive virtual reality of participants’ bodies by life-sized virtual bodies. Multisensory integration (vision, proprioception, touch) between the real and virtual body leads to the illusion of ownership over the virtual body, and has consequences for physiology, behaviours, attitudes, and cognition of the participants.

The know-how and associated systems are applied in real life scenarios concerned with perspective taking and empathy – ‘being in the shoes of another’. In particular, these ideas are applied in a variety of products and applications mainly with the common theme of rehabilitation.

The company has produced products in the domains of rehabilitation for domestic violence, mental health, and physical rehabilitation.

The Vall d’Hebron University Hospital Foundation – Research Institute (VHIR) was created in 1994 to promote and develop research and innovation at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (HUVH). VHIR is part of the Barcelona Campus Vall d’Hebron which has become one of the strongest hospital campuses in Europe. Nowadays, the campus is formed by the VHIR, the HUVH, the Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute (VHIO) and the Center for Multiple Sclerosis of Catalonia (CEMCat).

The Psychiatry Department of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital has been developing its clinical and scientific activity since 2001 and is currently comprised of three Clinical Units – Adult Psychiatry, Childhood Psychiatry and Community Care Services. Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics are included in Adult Psychiatry. The Liaison Psychiatry covers psychiatric consultation for the remaining in-patient services at the Hospital and gives support in outpatient consultations programs for other medical problems like obesity, chronic pain, stroke, spinal cord injury among others. The Department collaborates with the Faculty of Medicine of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) in their Doctoral and Postgraduate programmes and has clinical and research programmes focused on psychiatric disorders.

The Psychiatry Department carries out its clinical evaluation, diagnosis and treatment activity through professionals organized in different and specific clinical and research programs focused in different pathologies. The Psychiatry Department has a Research Unit which includes clinical staff with extensive experience in statistical analysis, all of whom participate in the research.