Dr. Stefan Michalski is a Research Fellow at the Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN) within the School of Clinical Medicine. Stefan is interested in intellectual disability and the application of virtual reality in clinical and real-world settings. He has a PhD in Psychology which investigated the use of immersive virtual reality to build capacity around life skills in people with intellectual disabilities. Stefan was awarded the Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation Grant to lead the project entitled "Helping children with intellectual disabilities develop real-world skills in virtual reality." His current work involves research related to a program of clinical and translational research in intellectual and developmental disability health and wellbeing. Stefan received funding from the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute to lead the project "Using virtual reality to prepare people with intellectual disability for healthcare interactions." Stefan is passionate about contributing to the academic and professional growth of students, having served in roles such as an Honours co-supervisor, course coordinator, and tutor.
Preprints
add
Taylor B; Michalski SC; Beacroft T; Torda A, 2026, Immersive versus Partially Immersive Virtual Reality for Training Clinical Reasoning and Patient Management in Undergraduate Medical Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8g79t_v1
2026
Michalski S; Adams J; Darejeh A; Cvejic R; Gustin S; Trollor J, 2026, Co-design and Feasibility Testing of an AI-Based Virtual Reality Application to Prepare People with Intellectual Disability for Healthcare Visits, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qwa9n_v1
2026
Michalski S; Loetscher T; Cvejic R; Trollor J, 2026, Applications of Emerging Digital Technologies to Address Health Needs of People with Intellectual Disability: A Scoping Review of the Past Decade, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5y3ha_v1
2026
Michalski S; Ellison C; Szpak A; Loetscher T, 2020, Vocational Training in Virtual Environments for People With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/f89va
2020
Szpak A; Michalski S; Loetscher T, 2020, Exergaming With Beat Saber: An Investigation of Virtual Reality Aftereffects, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/fj5mg
2020
Szpak A; Michalski S; Saredakis D; Chen C; Loetscher T, 2019, Beyond Feeling Sick: The Visual and Cognitive Aftereffects of Virtual Reality, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xerwz
2019
Michalski S; Szpak A; Saredakis D; Ross T; Billinghurst M; Loetscher T, 2019, Getting Your Game On: Using Virtual Reality to Improve Real Table Tennis Skills, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aw5gk
2019
Journal articles
add
Rooney T; Sharpe L; Winiarski N; Todd J; Colagiuri B; Van Ryckeghem D; Crombez G; Michalski SC, 2025, 'A synthesis of meta-analyses of immersive virtual reality interventions in pain', Clinical Psychology Review, 117, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2025.102566
2025
Arnold SRC; Huang Y; Srasuebkul P; Cvejic RC; Michalski SC; Trollor JN, 2025, 'Prevalence of psychiatric conditions in people with intellectual disability: A record linkage study in New South Wales, Australia', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 59, pp. 433 - 447, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00048674251324824
2025
Michalski SC; Huang Y; Srasuebkul P; Cvejic RC; Arnold SRC; Trollor JN, 2025, 'Predictors of mental illness onset in adolescents and adults with intellectual disability: A retrospective cohort study in New South Wales, Australia', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 59, pp. 1095 - 1105, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00048674251374483
2025
Sharpe L; Rooney T; Todd J; Michalski SC; Van Ryckeghem D; Crombez G; Colagiuri B, 2024, 'Attentional Processes in Pain: The Importance of Context and Attentional Alignment', Journal of Pain, 25, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104600
2024
Rooney T; Sharpe L; Todd J; Michalski SC; Van Ryckeghem D; Crombez G; Colagiuri B, 2024, 'Beyond the modified dot-probe task: A meta-analysis of the efficacy of alternate attention bias modification tasks across domains', Clinical Psychology Review, 110, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102436
2024
Michalski SC; Sharpe L; Boyse JB; Shaw J; Menzies RE, 2024, 'The Role of Pain and Interpretation Bias in Fear of Disease Progression in People With Diabetes', Journal of Pain, 25, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104638
2024
Franze A; Loetscher T; Gallomarino NC; Szpak A; Lee G; Michalski SC, 2024, 'Immersive virtual reality is more effective than non-immersive devices for developing real-world skills in people with intellectual disability', Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 68, pp. 1358 - 1373, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jir.13177
2024
Michalski SC; Gallomarino NC; Szpak A; May KW; Lee G; Ellison C; Loetscher T, 2023, 'Improving real-world skills in people with intellectual disabilities: an immersive virtual reality intervention', Virtual Reality, 27, pp. 3521 - 3532, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10055-023-00759-2
2023
Loetscher T; Jurkovic NS; Michalski SC; Billinghurst M; Lee G, 2023, 'Online Platforms for Remote Immersive Virtual Reality Testing: An Emerging Tool for Experimental Behavioral Research', Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 7, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mti7030032
2023
Michalski SC; Szpak A; Ellison C; Cornish R; Loetscher T, 2022, 'Using Virtual Reality to Improve Classroom Behavior in People With Down Syndrome: Within-Subjects Experimental Design', Jmir Serious Games, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/34373
2022
Michalski SC; Ellison C; Szpak A; Loetscher T, 2021, 'Vocational Training in Virtual Environments for People With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review', Frontiers in Psychology, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627301
2021
Clark RA; Szpak A; Michalski SC; Loetscher T, 2021, 'Rest intervals during virtual reality gaming augments standing postural sway disturbance', Sensors, 21, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21206817
2021
Szpak A; Michalski SC; Loetscher T, 2020, 'Exergaming with Beat Saber: An Investigation of Virtual Reality Aftereffects', Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22, http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19840
2020
Michalski SC; Szpak A; Saredakis D; Ross TJ; Billinghurst M; Loetscher T, 2019, 'Getting your game on: Using virtual reality to improve real table tennis skills', Plos One, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222351
2019
Michalski SC; Szpak A; Loetscher T, 2019, 'Using virtual environments to improve real-world motor skills in sports: A systematic review', Frontiers in Psychology, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02159
2019
Szpak A; Michalski SC; Saredakis D; Chen CS; Loetscher T, 2019, 'Beyond Feeling Sick: The Visual and Cognitive Aftereffects of Virtual Reality', IEEE Access, 7, pp. 130883 - 130892, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2940073
2019
Conference Papers
add
Szpak A; Richards A; Michalski SC; Loetscher T, 2022, 'Getting the Most out of Virtual Reality: Evaluating Short Breaks to Reduce Cybersickness and Cognitive Aftereffects', in Proceedings 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops Vrw 2022, pp. 533 - 537, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/VRW55335.2022.00119
2022
Grants as Chief Investigator:
2024 UNSW Disability Innovation Institute Research Seed Funding, Using Virtual Reality to Prepare People with Intellectual Disability for Healthcare Interactions ($20,000)
2021-2022 Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation, Helping children with intellectual disabilities develop real-world life skills in virtual reality ($39,026)