Meet the Speakers: 

Dr. Stephen Hearns, MB ChB FRCEM FRCS FRCP FRGS DIMC DRTM

Stephen is a consultant with Scotland’s Emergency Medical Retrieval Service. He led the establishment of the team from a small voluntary service in 2004 to what is now a fully government funded aeromedical retrieval organisation.

He is the author of Peak Performance Under Pressure, a book discussing decision making in high pressure situations and the effects of human factors on team and individual performance. He trains medical, rescue, military and police personnel internationally in this area.

Stephen led the team establishing the Diploma in retrieval and transfer medicine for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He developed and contributes to the organisation of the annual UK retrieval conference. Stephen is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the University of Glasgow.

He has been an active voluntary member of Arrochar mountain rescue team for 30 years and holds the Mountain Leader Award. Stephen acted as medical officer on seven international expeditions in mountain, desert, jungle and arctic environments before establishing the first expedition medicine course in the UK.

Stephen has been providing expert opinions in legal cases for over fifteen years. He was the Scottish Ombudsman’s first advisor in emergency medicine and prehospital care and has been an expert witness for the General Medical Council for ten years. He also works with the Procurator Fiscal in relation to fatal accident inquiries. Website: www.CoreCognition.co.uk

Marientina Gotsis, MFA

Marientina Gotsis is a Professor of Practice in the Interactive Media & Games Division at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. As founding director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center, she oversees design and evaluation of educational and therapeutic interventions using interactive media. She has led competitively funded programs with public and private funding and collaborated internationally with KEIO University, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of Crete. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the Aristotle University School of Medicine in Greece. With 40+ publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, she is an Associate Editor at Frontiers of Virtual Reality in Medicine. She developed and directs the graduate programs MA in Cinematic Arts (Media Arts, Games & Health) and MFA in Interactive Media (Games & Health). She holds a BFA in Photography/Film/Electronic Μedia and an MFA in Electronic Visualization with a specialization in virtual reality from the University of Illinois-Chicago.