Jose Ferrer Costa
José Ferrer Costa is a medical doctor specializing in family and emergency medicine, currently working in the Innovation and Research Department at Badalona Serveis Assistencials, Barcelona. He leads and coordinates multiple projects focused on the clinical implementation of extended reality in healthcare, particularly in chronic pain, rehabilitation and health education.
He is also a PhD researcher at the Open University of Catalonia, where his work focuses on the adoption and implementation of XR in healthcare settings. Alongside his clinical and research work, he develops XR content for healthcare, with a particular interest in co-design, workflow integration and the translation of immersive technologies into real clinical practice.
From pilot to pathway: Embedding XR in biopsychosocial rehabilitation
How does XR stop being a promising pilot and become part of routine care?
Using chronic pain as a case study, this talk explores how XR can be embedded within biopsychosocial rehabilitation pathways in primary care, not as a standalone intervention but as a practical clinical tool that helps professionals support emotional regulation, mental health, patient engagement and multidisciplinary therapeutic goals.
Drawing on the multi-centre implementation of an XR-supported psychoeducational programme for chronic pain, the session shows how clinician-led design, iterative development and context-sensitive decisions shaped adoption over time. Features such as hand tracking and the use of augmented reality in group sessions are presented not as technical novelties, but as choices that reduced friction, supported clinical flow and made XR easier to deliver in real-world settings.
Rather than focusing on immersion for its own sake, the talk argues that lasting implementation depends on fit with routine practice, facilitator confidence and institutional support. The real challenge is not to make XR more impressive, but more useful in helping professionals deliver care.
