Doctors and experts discuss esports medicine in livestreamed event today

Real Medicine 2020 Esports Medicine Conference — (Image credit: New York Institute of Technology)

The New York Institute of Technology is holding an online conference today entitled "Virtual Gaming: Real Medicine 2020 Esports Medicine," that will examine topics ranging from the broad state of esports and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to mental health, research, and innovations in esports and gaming.

The conference is underway after starting at 11 am ET with opening remarks, and will run through the following schedule:

11:10 am – Current State of Esports

ReKTGlobal Inc. chief creative officer Kevin Knocke

11:30 am – The of COVID on Competitive Gaming

Psychological Effect of COVID: Dr. Sarah Sawyer, PsyD, LMHCC
Lindsey Migliore, D.O. aka Gamerdoc

12:00 pm – Health and Performance: Professional Gaming Panel: Taylor Johnson, MS

Panelists:

Cait McGee, DPT – 1HP
Summer Scott, MS – Head of Player Development, CLGaming
Host: Hallie Zwibel, DO, MPH

1:00 pm – Mental Health and Sports Psychology

Carl Daubert, MS – Mental Performance Coach

1:30 pm – College and High School Esports Panel

Chris "Doc" Haskell, Associate Professor Boise State University, Head Esports Coach
PlayVS: Callum Fletcher, Director of Esports at Illinois Wesleyan University
PlayVS: Thomas Young
Host: Eliser Duran, NYIT CyBears Manager

2:00 pm – Academics and Research Panel

Joanne Donoghue, PhD – Associate Professor, Director of Clinical Research NYIT
Hallie Zwibel, D.O., MPH – Associate Professor, Director of Sports Medicine NYIT
Seth Jenny, PhD – Assistant Professor Slippery Rock University Pennsylvania
Adam Toth, PhD – Limerick University
Host: Lindsey Magliore, D.O.

2:30 pm – Innovations in Esports and Gaming

Wayne Mackey, PhD

2:45 pm – How Dell Technologies Supports K20 STEM Through Esports

Danielle Rourke – Senior Higher Education Strategist, Dell Technologies

3:15 pm – Closing Remarks

Some of the events are obviously going to be more academic than mainstream, but one or two sound like they could be quite interesting even for a relatively casual esports fan, particularly those relating to physical and mental health. Competitive esports are as much a mental as a physical game, but there's very real physicality to it as well: As Katie noted in her recent argument that esports competitors are athletes, "there is some speculation that pro-players do not exert enough physical effort for their activities to be considered a sport—tell that to the esports pros suffering from repetitive strain injury, or tennis elbow."

NYIT's Virtual Gaming: Real Medicine 2020 Esports Medicine Conference is being held on Zoom, and is open to the public: The password for access is 163316.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.