Cedars-Sinai Physician Chosen to Lead First Medical Journal Focused on Extended Reality

Brennan Spiegel, MD, professor of Medicine and director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai, has been named editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Extended Reality (JMXR), the world’s first peer-reviewed publication focused on extended reality. 

Spiegel is well known as a leader in medical extended reality, or MXR, a new field of medicine focused on using technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), to treat patients with a range of conditions. He has published seminal studies in MXR through his research at Cedars-Sinai, with a focus on using VR to help manage pain and anxiety. 

The new, open-access and peer-reviewed research journal will be the official journal of the American Medical Extended Reality Association (AMXRA) and will cover virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality research, alongside that of other emerging technologies. The first articles are scheduled to be published in January 2024.

“The significance of the Journal of Medical Extended Reality (JMXR) lies in our collective pursuit of unlocking the potential of MXR, while ensuring rigorous scientific scrutiny and the highest standards of evidence-based research,” said Spiegel. “The journal will serve as an essential catalyst to clinicians, researchers, technologists and policymakers for the accelerated growth of medical XR, promoting critical dialogue, ethical considerations, and the dissemination of invaluable expertise.”

At Cedars-Sinai, Spiegel, the George and Dorothy Gourrich Chair in Digital Health Ethics and director of Health Services Research, created the Virtual Medicine Program dedicated to studying XR in medicine.

“The Cedars-Sinai program offers education, clinical care, and research into virtual reality and other extended reality technologies,” said Spiegel. “As part of that program, we’ve treated over 3,000 patients with different forms of virtual reality and are actively developing new programs for conditions ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to anxiety.” Cedars-Sinai is also home to the annual Virtual Medicine Conference, a leading symposium advancing the science of medical extended reality.

With the launch of JMXR, Spiegel hopes to foster collaborations among a wide range of professionals developing MXR hardware and software programs, including physicians, computer scientists, engineers and psychologists, among others. His goal with the journal is to stimulate innovative approaches, promote evidence-based practices, and drive the adoption of extended reality technologies in healthcare settings around the world.

“Dr. Spiegel is well poised to accelerate his national leadership in this rapidly evolving field of medicine,” said Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, executive vice president of Academic Affairs and dean of the Medical Faculty at Cedars-Sinai. “His impactful research in the field of extended reality will be immeasurably accelerated with the launch of this journal.”

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