The Ohio State Alumni Magazine has featured ACCAD in an article titled "ACCAD: Where art and tech meet to help people." This piece highlights a new project, led by John Luna '17 MFA, that is bringing ACCAD and Nationwide Children’s Hospital together in a partnership that unites the worlds of art and technology to enhance patient care.

As a trained dancer and veteran of Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, John Luna knows how pairing body movement, technology and imagination can create meaningful ways to help people.

“There’s an improvisational, exploratory, body-centered way of understanding things that makes for a better understanding of each other,” says Luna, who now works in the research division at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. “I make interactive media tools and apps for kids, their families and health care providers. The work has spanned from interventions that help with pain management to educational tools or exposure therapies.”

His new project is leading a partnership between Nationwide Children’s and ACCAD, where he interned during his years as an Ohio State grad student in dance. They’ll use virtual reality simulation to train hospital staff on how to de-escalate patients, both pediatric and adult, who are in crisis, a project funded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Follow the link to read the full article: https://alumnimagazine.osu.edu/story/art-tech-meet-accad