VIRGIL WONG

Virgil Wong is an artist and digital technologist using virtual reality and artificial intelligence to transform healthcare. He is the Chief Digital Officer of HGS, a global digital experience company – and co-founder of Medical Avatar, an organization using virtual and augmented reality to improve population health outcomes. For 15 years, he led web and multimedia development for patient care, research, and education at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Virgil is also an independent artist who has exhibited in hospitals and museums worldwide, including The State Hermitage Museum in Russia, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, and Deitch Projects in NYC. His work has been featured in The New York Times, CBS News, The Huffington Post, and NPR.

At Columbia University, Virgil completed his research certification and coursework in the Ph.D. cognitive studies in education and intelligent technologies program. He holds an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute and a BFA from RISD, where he dissected and drew human cadavers at the University of Rome Medical School. Virgil documented his anatomical studies in the award-winning memento mori short film Corporeal Self. He also co-directed Murmur, a visualization of a cardiothoracic surgeon's dream journal, which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival.

For over 20 years, Virgil has taught design, photography, film, virtual reality, and interactive media to graduate students at The New School – where he received the university's Faculty Mentorship Award for Outstanding Teaching. His TED talk on visualizations at the heart of patient-centric care is online at: https://www.virgilwong.com